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Pioneers 



"JlO 



By 

KATHARINE R. CROWELL 



Author of 

"Japan for Juniors" "Africa for Juniors' 

"Alaska for Juniors" 

" Great Voyages " "Coming Americans' 

"Leaders in Conference" 

Etc., Etc. 




The Willett Press 

Publishers 

Five West Twentieth Street 
New York 



:P, 






Ll6flA«Y of 00NGKES5 
two Gooles rteceivcM. 

MAY 23 1908 

GLASS fih XXC. Nu. 

COPY a. 



ARRANGED AND PRINTED BY 

THE WILLETT PRESS 

NEW YORK 




Frontiers : A Bird*s-eye View 

I. With Axe and Rifle 

II. Saddle-Bags 

III. Down-Stream^ .. 

IV. On the Warpath 
V. Tne Long Trail 

VI. Driving the Golden Nail 

VI I . Twentieth Century Pioneers 



Frontispiece 

5 
20 
28 

35 
40 
46 

52 



/ 



The Leader's Supplement 



61 



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Pioneers 



'We, the primeval forest felling; 
We, the rivers stemming; vexing 

we, and piercing deep the 

mines within ; 
We, the surface broad surveying ; 

we, the virgin soil upheaving; 
Pioneers — O Pioneers. 



" We, detachments steady- 
throwing 
Down the edges through the 
passes, up the mountains 
steep, 
Conquering, holding, daring, 
venturing as we go the 
unknown ways. 

Pioneers — O Pioneers." 




CHAPTER FIRST 

PART ONE 

Now men neede no more contentiously to strive for 
romne to build an house on, or for a little turfe of 
ground, zvhen great countreys and whole worlds 
offer and reache out themselves to them that will first 
voutsafe to possesse, inhabite aiid till them. 




O says an old, old book of voyages 
written when the ''great coun- 
treys and whole worlds" had just 
been discovered. In those days 
few people knew how to read, 
and copies of any book were very 
scarce, but in some way these new 
worlds began to be talked about; 
so much so that it would seem almost possible if one 
listened intently, to hear over many an English vil- 
lage a constant buzz, as of many voices eagerly 
speaking. 

Think of the promise held out by this alluring 
new world ! Room to build a house on, and a "lit- 
tle turfe" of ground. Yes, and also free air to 
breathe. 

No wonder that there was excited and hopeful 
talking, for there was in England at this time for 



very many people no chance for a home or for free- 
dom of thinking. In fact many men and women 
who had ventured to think for themselves had al- 
ready been sent away from the country, and were 
badly enough in need of homes. They will start 
out presently to the new world; brave men and 
women who will ''first voutsafe" to "possesse, in- 
habite and till" the wilderness they find. We call 
these people pioneers, and as we follow some of 
them into the new country, let us remember that 
they come to it for two reasons; first, to find for 
themselves and their children freedom to worship 
God in the way they think right; and secondly, to 
give their children a home, an education and a 
chance in the world. 

I rather think that most of the pioneers of this 
story had these two things in mind. Just watch and 
see ! and now and then toss back a "Thank you !" to 
these grand old fellows, for your homes, your free- 
dom of conscience and your present glorious 
"chance in life." 

So now we find in a quaint little town in Holland 
a little family of father and mother and five quaintly 
named and quaintly dressed children, who are about 
to set out for the new world. 

Such a time as there has been to find a ship! and 
now that one — the little Speedzvell, — has been se- 
cured, it proves too small to carry all the Pilgrims 
who want to go. So the youngest and strongest 
volunteer to be pioneers for the rest. 

They go on board the Speedwell, and as they lift 
anchor, the sailors fire ofif three small cannon. It is 
a great day for these home-makers beginning their 
voyage to an unknown land — but it is an even 
greater day for us ! 

At Southampton our pioneers leave the Speed- 
well for the larger Mayflower — larger but after all 
only a little tub of a boat. Indeed there is not any- 
thing big in the whole affair, except the courage 
and purpose of the great-hearted pioneers ! 



But I have not told you the names of the children. 
Now, do not laugh ! I do not see either how fathers 
and mothers could give such names to rollicking lit- 
tle pink and white, blue-eyed babies — but they did. 
The first boy was named "Experience" ; his younger 
brother was 'Treserved"; then came the baby-girls 
"Submission" and "Patience" and "Hopestill." I 
wonder how rosy little Hopestill ever got her 
tongue around her brothers' names ! They were 
brave and plucky children anyway. As an old 
chronicler says, they "never showed fear or dis- 
mayedness" during the long, long voyage amid all 
the peril of storms and dangers from pirates, and 
worst of all from the dreaded horrible monsters of 
the sea. All these people, big and little, firmly be- 
lieved in these awful creatures. 

At last the long voyage ends. After they have 
landed on the "stern New England coast" where 
"the breaking waves dash high," they still have need 
to be courageous, for the dangers and hardships of 
the land prove even more terrible than those of the 
sea. Poor little children! Hungry, bitterly cold, 
and sick. It is a sad story — that of the first winter 
in New England. Shall we not pass it by, and on 
a March morning go out into the forest with Ex- 
perience and Preserved, the little sisters and the 
father and mother — to make the beginning of a 
home in the wilderness? 

You see the sturdy little procession — but you do 
not see much to make a home out of, do you ? 

But the father carries his axe and his rifle ; and 
all around them is the great forest. Out of it — 
grim and mighty and filled with dangers from beast 
and man, the pioneer will, with axe and rifle, win 
his home. 

Listen ! Can you not hear a rhythmic music sound- 
ing through the forest Hke some mighty "anvil 
chorus?" The clear ring of the axe, and sharp 
crack of the rifle — thousands and thousands of 
homes have been won and held by them ! 



The other possessions of the family are a little 
supply of food, a few quilts and blankets, some seeds 
given them by friendly Indians, and a little spin- 
ning wheel. That is all I think — outside. Inside, 
even down to little Hopestill, they carry stout hearts 
that will never give in and a courage and determi- 
nation that nothing can conquer. 

You would never think what first sheltered the 
mother and the babies from the March winds — and 
the snow ; for a driving snow-storm reached the place 
just as they did ! Why, wrapped in their quilts and 
blankets they rested in the friendly arms of a great 
uprooted tree! There they stay while the axe be- 
gins it work; soon a great fire is started, and a 
rough hut built ; now our pioneer begins to clear the 
land — Indian-fashion. Chop, chop, chop — day after 
day the axe rings out, and often there is the crash of 
falHng trees, which lie where they fall, in a great 
tangle. 

When a large space has been prepared in this 
way, the fun begins. Out from the cabin troop all 
the members of the family carrying flaming torches 
of pine wood. They set fire to the fallen trees. 
There is a great snapping and crackling and soon 
there is a glorious bonfire and much excitement — 
not only from the leaping and roaring flames. As 
the heat increases the children see multitudes of 
animals — deer, raccoons, woodchucks, rabbits, 
foxes — scurrying out from all sides into the shelter 
of the surrounding forest. It is a thrilling moment 
when a big gray wolf darts out from the burning 
mass! and not less thrilling when a shot from the 
settler's rifle brings him down. 

The fire at length burns out, and there is the 
"clearing." The soil, softened by the heat, is covered 
vnth a thick layer of warm ashes and in this fine 
hot-bed the settler plants his seeds — corn, pumpkin, 
peas, potatoes and beans. These sprout quickly and 
grow rapidly. No danger now of a famine next 
winter ! 



Thus far the Indians have been very friendly and 
have taught this family and others in the settlement 
many things besides clearing the ground and plant- 
ing seeds; how to make maple sugar, for instance; 
and how to dig clams and to catch fish ; how to pre- 
serve meat and bake beans^in an earthen jar as 
you have them to-day ! They brought skins of ani- 
mals and taught the settlers to make them into soft 
leather, and if the children looked queer in Holland, 
in their clumsy clothes and clattering wooden shoes, 
they are even more comical now. 

But the leather shirts and skirts and aprons, shoes 
and caps have at least the one advantage of never 
wearing out! 

It ought to be said that the Indian squaws do a 
good deal of the teaching, and give much help to the 
palefaces. It is certainly an Indian mother who 
made the pretty wicker cradle in which Hopestill's 
baby brother lies so comfortably, in spite of his 
queer wrappings. The Pilgrim babies are funny 
looking little creatures, and they have a hard strug- 
gle for life in these early days of pioneering. Only 
the very strongest can live through all the hard- 
ships and suffering. But this little fellow has 
bright eyes and a determined. Pilgrim-like sort of 
expression. He will probably pull through ! 

While we are talking the corn and other things 
are ripening, and somehow the cornfield has a very 
familiar look. Rows of hillocks and tall stalks of 
corn, squash and pumpkin vines running between 
the rows, and beans climbing up the stalks. If you 
plant that way you do it because the Indians did. 
When the corn is ready to be ground, there is a 
mill — an Indian mill it is — ready to grind it. This 
mill is a great log hollowed out in the shape of a 
mortar, just over the opening hangs a heavy log 
tied by a rope to a long limb of a tree. Soaked corn 
is put into the mortar, the children pull on the rope, 
the log comes down and pounds the corn. 

It is great fun — ^this grinding the corn — for even 



sober little Pilgrims like noise and clatter and the 
Indian mill certainly does make a tremendous 
racket. It can be heard even in far-away clearings, 
and these pioneers learn after awhile to communi- 
cate with one another by a sort of telegraphic code 
made up on the strokes of the log ! But this noise is 
not the only enjoyment. The shining yellow kernels 
hold within themselves great possibilities of pleas- 
ures to come! There will be samp and succotash 
and "pones" — which the Indian teachers say must 
be baked on a red oak plank over a fire of walnut 
logs ! And there is a familiar friend of yours which 
these children call ''parched" corn; whatever they 
call it, their astonishment is great the first time they 
hear it "pop" and see it turn inside out ! 

Experience and Preserved think of these coming 
delights — so would you, if you had starved through 
last winter ! and the pounding goes merrily on. The 
next thing is to sift the ground corn through a 
loosely-woven Indian basket. The meal goes 
through, the ''samp" stays in. 

Did you notice that there were no dishes among 
the possessions brought to the wilderness? Noth- 
ing but one little flat pewter cup! How then, will 
the children eat these good things when they come? 
But hark! what is that sound? It is surely the 
friendly axe providing plates of broad chips of 
wood, and chipping out deep bowls and trenchers! 

They brought no furniture with them. No — but 
on stormy days the axe stops its ringing in the forest 
and with the help of wedges splits from big logs 
broad slabs, and in time the cabin is supplied with 
table, stools and rough frames which piles of hem- 
lock boughs change into beds. 

The greatest triumph and comfort is a big high- 
backed "settle." It helps to keep off the bitter 
winds which, coming through the cracks in the log 
walls, freeze the children's backs while their faces 
are roasted by the roaring fire on the hearth. It is 
so cold sometimes that the sap forced out of the 



wood by the flames freezes into ice on the ends of 
the logs ! So you see the value of the high settle — 
it keeps the cold out and holds the heat in. 

As the cold weather and the long evenings come 
on, the big fire on the hearth lights up the room 
and there is besides the light of blazing "Indian 
candles" or, as we should say, pine knots. 

But have you thought what a work it is to keep 
that fire from going out? Once in a while it does 
go out — in the night too. Not much of a calamity, 
you think. But in those days matches were not 
made by the milhons per day ! In fact at this time 
not even the inventive New Englander had even 
thought that they could be made. The Indians had 
taught them how to strike a spark, but sometimes 
the spark would not kindle the tinder ! 

What then? The nearest fire is in the cabin of a 
far-away settler. There is no help for it; so the 
boys get a flat piece of very green wood and set off 
sleepily but sturdily through the woods and in time 
get back carrying burning brands on their green- 
wood shovel ! 

Our pioneers have now shelter and warmth and 
light; food in plenty and clothing — of a queer cut 
perhaps, but warm, — pure water, the free air they 
longed for and "roume" to grow up in. 

They are far on the road toward home-making, 
are they not? 

PART TWO 

WELL — Experience and Preserved, Submis- 
sion, Patience, Hopestill and the bright- 
eyed baby Desire, did grow up; nothwith- 
standing their queer names which we should think 
almost too queer to bear up under; and it is their 
children and grandchildren who are living in the 
strongly-built houses of which there are many in 
this thrifty and attractive New England settlement. 
For, since we watched the little cabin going up in 

II 



the forest, other ships have come over the sea bring- 
ing men and women and children, strong and 
strong-hearted, whom no dangers or hardships can 
frighten and whose keen thought and ready wit 
overcome all the obstacles of the wilderness. These 
later arrivals are called Puritans. 

Now, the worst is over. 

Still, for some reason the men carry their rifles 
always — even to the meeting-house on Sundays, 
and we see that the meeting-house itself has four 
cannon on the roof. Even in the daytime the chil- 
dren do not go far from home. Sometimes, daring 
or heedless boys and girls have wandered away and 
have never been seen again. When evening falls, 
we hear from father or mother the anxious ques- 
tion, "Are all the children in?" as a hen cluck, 
clucks until the downy chicks are safely under her 
sheltering wings. 

The heavy wooden shutters and the doors are 
barred and double-barred. You think that here in 
the little settlement the night will be quiet? You 
forget the howling of the wolves ! And even our 
brave little children shudder and tremble as they 
sometimes hear in the distance, louder than all the 
dismal howling, the blood-freezing Indian war- 
whoop! So, happy are the family when the morn- 
ing dawns, if no terrible thing has happened. 

Sometimes far off in some lonely clearing they 
see smoke rising from the ruins of a log house. 
They can guess what has happened there, for, you 
see, their once kind and friendly neighbors, the In- 
dians, are their most cruel and revengeful enemies 
now, and night and day all the people must be on 
their guard against them. 

Many things are unlike the first pioneer days. 
For one thing, the children we see are mostly 
dressed in homespun. Glance around you ! You 
will soon see why this is so. 

The day we have chosen is in summer. Do you 
know New England in summer? Such blue, blue 

12 



skies ! and the air thrills and trills and flutes and 
whistles with bird-song; and it is spicy and sweet 
with odors of balsam and pine and wild strawber- 
ries. There is the fragrance of sweet fern and the 
beauty of wild roses; and the fresh breezes blow 
over fields of blue flax and white and red clover. 
Bright sunshine sparkles in and out among the 
stately blades of the Indian corn as they bend to the 
breeze and rise again, and soft cloud shadows chase 
the sunshine over rippling golden grain-fields and 
the blue waters of a tiny lake. Sheep are grazing 
on the uplands and down in the lush grasses of the 
meadows are sleek cattle, chewing the cud. Laugh- 
ing, eager brooks are turning wheels of saw-mill and 
grist-mill, and over in the forests we hear shouts 
of drivers, and see oxen dragging out great trunks 
of spruce trees, tall and straight. Presently these 
trees will be the masts of vessels sailing to England, 
for New England already has its shipyards. 

You have discovered, have you not, why the 
children are dressed in homespun? Partly because 
the timid wild animals have been frightened by the 
sound of axe and rifle far back into the forests, and 
partly because the fields of flax and hemp, and the 
sheep on the hillside provide linen and wool for the 
spinning wheels and looms which are to be found 
in almost every house. 

Wheelwrights visit the houses sometimes. Why 
wheelwrights when the only roads are Indian trails ? 
But these wheelwrights make spinning- not wagon- 
wheels. 

These little homespun children are not idle. Puri- 
tan children — idlef Oh, no, no. For one thing 
there are the flax fields — there would not be so many 
pretty drooping blue blossoms if the children had 
not so carefully weeded the beds when the baby 
plants were three or four inches high, and so tender 
that the weedings must be done barefoot unless the 
ground has a growth of thistles ! Even then there 
must be no heavy shoes ; but three or four pairs of 

13 



heavy woolen stockings are allowed. Can you not 
see the quaint little figures carefully stepping — 
facing the wind, so if in spite of their care any 
plants should be trodden down the wind will help to 
blow them back into place? Now, on this lovely 
June day the flax is ripe. Too bad ! for instead of 
going fishing, the boys must help to pull up the 
plants by the roots — spread them out in the sun to 
dry and turn them over and over. After that there 
will be many, many things to do before the flax will 
be ready for spinning. And even after that, the 
skeins of thread must be bleached and rinsed and 
beaten and washed and dried and wound on bob- 
bins for the loom! The little Puritans help in all 
this work. 

They are shepherds too, and this would not be so 
bad — sitting on some hillside, listening to the birds, 
watching fascinating squirrels and wading in 
brooks. But — Puritan children watching squirrels 
and wading in brooks ? — Alas ! no — for it is ordered 
that while they tend sheep or cattle, "they must be 
set to some other employment withal" — spinning on 
a distaff, knitting, or weaving tape. 

When, in the autumn, the days shorten and the 
pleasant long evenings come on, you perhaps make 
a slight motion with thumb and forefinger — and lo ! 
your house is flooded with light. 

Did the little Puritans so ? 

It is pleasant enough to go to the forest to gather 
a supply of "Indian candles," or on a crisp autumn 
day to go "bayberrying." Have you ever seen bay- 
berry candles? The Puritan children knew all 
about them from the gathering of the tiny waxen 
berries until the candles were ready to burn. 

But the real candle-making? That is disagreeable 
and tiresome work of which the children have their 
full share. "Rush lights" are rather nice to make — 
just common rushes, with a part of the bark pulled 
ofif, dipped in tallow and left to harden. 

We were speaking a moment ago of the few 

14 



things the pioneers brought with them to the new 
world. They had really almost nothing, and it puz- 
zles us to think how they could have lived at all 
without the start given them by the Indians, but 
once started, it is amazing to see how they made the 
fields and the forests and the waters furnish every- 
thing they needed. It was as though a general 
thinking cap had settled down on the heads of men, 
women and children, and as they ploughed or 
planted, spun or wove, carried water from the 
spring, spent long evenings whittling by the light of 
the fire — always they were thinking out ways of 
making work easier and of saving money by care- 
ful use of everything; so the children grew up, and 
before long this inventiveness and savingness 
seemed to be a part of the character of every child 
born in New England. 

Each man had a home of his own, and every mem- 
ber of the family worked hard to make the home 
more comfortable. Suppose you put on your think- 
ing cap and go through one day checking off the 
things that make your days easy and pleasant. Did 
the little Puritans have this? or this? or this? Be- 
gin when you get up in the morning — no, you must 
begin before you get up — for surely those children 
did not have steel springs or — ^but it was your think- 
ing cap we were speaking of, was it not? 

We might go through a day with the little Puri- 
tans. 

I do not like to think of how they find out that it 
is time to ''get up" — yott feel perhaps a soft touch, 
and open your eyes to see a bright face and hear a 
gentle voice. "It is time to get up, dear! Such a 
lovely morning! So bright and sunny, and sweet 
and fresh. How cheerily the birds are singing! 
Hurry! so that you may not miss anything of the 
beautiful day, or its opportunities for enjoyment in 
work and study and play and helpfulness." 

Did the Puritan children hear anything like that? 
No, no. I do not understand it exactly, for Puritan 

15 



fnthcrs and mothers loved their children, but they 
thought it was right to be very stern and hard with 
them — and I have certainly heard that the first some 
of these children know of the dawn of another day 
is a bucketful of cold water suddenly thrown over 
them. You gasp in sympathy, don't you? And 
their first thoughts are not of pleasure and thanks- 
giving for being alive in God's beautiful world ; but 
instead a heavy burden of dismal recalling of the 
wrong things they did yesterday. 

But they must not loiter, for if they are not at the 
breakfast table at the proper time — but never mind 
what might happen in such a case, for they are in 
time, and take their places — not their chairs — oh, no, 
the older people sit at the table but the children 
stand and do not speak unless spoken to ! This 
morning they have bread and milk in wooden bowls. 
After breakfast — it is still very early in the morning 
— there are many "chores" to be done; pleasant 
work much of it is, or would be, if the Puritans 
were allowed to take pleasure in anything. It is all 
done at last and the children start off to school — a 
long walk through the woods. This at least is a 
pleasant time. 

The severe-looking teacher calls the roll — all 
Bible names — Sarahs and Abigails and Mehitables ; 
Zerniahs and Abiels — and woful is it if any are 
tardy, or if they falter as they say the alphabet and 
"a-b abs" from the little horn book — which looks 
like a hair-brush without any bristles. In place of 
the bristles is a queerly printed little slip of paper 
containing the alphabet and a few Bible verses. To 
preserve the precious bit of printing a thin sheet of 
horn is fastened over it. The children recite their 
lesson aloud — very loud — in unison, and the ear of 
the master is so trained that he can detect amid all 
the din the faltering or sudden silence of one voice. 
Let us not think what then happens to the little 
owner of that voice ! 

Reading and writing and a very little "cyphering" 

i6 



are taught in these schools; but we should add to 
this the education the children are receiving at home. 
For at this time each household supplies all its own 
wants, and the boys and girls are thoroughly taught 
every part of the work. 

This "manual training," together with what they 
are taught in school, fits them well for their work 
in life. 

After school there are more chores. So go the 
days of the week, and at length the sun sets on Sat- 
urday — as it does with us now. 

But for the little Puritans the Sabbath began 
when the sun set on Saturday, and lasted until sun- 
set on Sunday. For you Sunday may be the happiest 
day of the whole happy week, but not so for these 
early little Puritans ! For them its hours are very 
long. You should be grateful for two things in re- 
gard to Sunday — grateful to these stern old Puri- 
tans for their large share in preserving for America 
the day of rest, grateful, too, for the better under- 
standing of how the day may be made a blessing. 

All the family go to church. It is a solemn walk. 
For the reason above spoken of they are all careful 
to keep together. The shelter of their father's rifle 
is not to be despised ! But once in church the men 
and women take the most comfortable "pens" — the 
girls have their special place and the boys are hud- 
dled together on the most uncomfortable seats — 
some of them on the pulpit steps, in full view of all 
the people ! The sermon is very long and hard to 
listen to, and trying to listen makes some people 
restless and others sleepy. It is well not to be 
either; for constantly walking up and down the 
aisles is the stern "tithing man" carrying a long 
pole with a heavy knob on one end and a foxtail 
on the other. The restless children are knocked on 
the head with the knob ; the sleepy ones are tickled 
awake with the foxtail ! 

You remember the resolute purpose of these pio- 
neers in coming to the new world was to win homes 

17 



and freedom of conscience for themselves and their 
children. They were "awfully" strict, but they car- 
ried out this purpose with splendid courage and 
determination, and America is what it is to-day 
largely because of these three things — Christian 
homes, schools, and freedom of conscience, with 
observance of the day of rest. We owe a great debt 
to these stern, strong, righteous pioneers, who lived 
nearly three hundred years ago. 

When you are men and women you will be three 
hundred years ahead of them in knowledge and at- 
tainments. I wonder if even one hundred years 
from now your great-great-grandchildren will still 
remember some good thing which your heroism 
shall give to America? 

Once a year at least you should think of these 
things! On Thanksgiving Day, a happy occasion 
which you also owe to the New England pioneers. 



Another little ship set sail from Holland once 
upon a time — the Half-Moon, with Hendrick Hud- 
son and his crew on board. They were looking, 
as were all seamen at that time, for a northwest 
passage to India and "Cathay," lands of gold and 
spices and precious stones. 

The Half-Moon sailed on and on and in the sum- 
mer days came not to India or Cathay but to a land 
of beauty, where emerald islands resting on the 
sparkling l3lue waters drew close together and stood 
on guard at the entrance to the country. But the 
Half-Moon sailed through the narrow gateway, dis- 
covering the loveliest river the sun shines on ! And 
so it came about that in time we see upon those 
emerald islands curious wooden houses, with fronts 
of black and yellow brick, and with queer-looking 
gable roofs ; and in front of the houses merry little 
Dutch children are playing, while the beautiful 
bright river runs down to the sea between high 
banks covered with trees and grass and flowers. 

i8 



We see Indian canoes on the river ; they are filled 
with furs which they will trade to the Dutchmen in 
exchange for beads and hatchets and nails. They 
are friendly, for the Dutch have treated them fairly 
and have paid them one hundred and twenty-five 
dollars for Manhattan Island! 

Some of the pleasant things you owe to these 
Dutch pioneers are — the first free churches and first 
pubHc schools of America, and our observance of 
New Year's Day, Easter and Christmas. When 
next you visit Manhattan Island try to see it as it 
must have been almost three hundred years ago, 
when the happy little Dutch children were singing 
Christmas carols and enjoying their Christmas 
feasts ! 

The "new worlds and great countries" attracted 
many people. Even before the Pilgrims came to 
Plymouth three little ships had brought colonists 
who began a settlement on the James river. We 
are not very much interested in these settlements be- 
cause for many years no children came to them. 
One thing we notice : that the day after the landing 
of the first colonists at Jamestown a religious serv- 
ice was held. The "church" was made from the 
sails of the ship. 

Other people came — William Penn and his Quak- 
ers; many Germans and Swedes, Lord Baltimore's 
colony, and still others, until at length there were 
settlements along the whole extent of the Atlantic 
coast from Maine to Florida ; but Florida belonged 
to Spain. Everywhere we may see now groups of 
children, fair-skinned, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed ; most 
of them, but not all — here and there are some little 
black children. The fair-skinned boys and girls are 
happy in the new world ; but the bbck children have 
been brought here against their vvill. 



19 




CHAPTER SECOND 
PART ONE 

''By me7i and women of blood and iro7i, simple folk 
but brave a7id true, was the first expa^ision move- 
ment undertaken a7id completed; thus i7i sorrow and 
sufferi7ig, by privatio7t, sacrifice a7id almost in- 
credible heroism was the grou7id broke7i for the great 
harvest of the future. ' ' 



IN a log house in a little mountain settlement a 
circle of children are sitting — on the floor or on 
three-legged stools — in front of the big fire- 
place. They are bending forward, with flushed and 
eager faces ; and their earnest eyes are fastened upon 
a man seated at the side of the fire. He is dressed 
in hunting shirt, moccasins and leggings, all tattered 
and muddy. From his belt hang a tomahawk and 
knife — and by his side is his heavy rifle ; if he were 
standing up it would reach to his chin, though he 
is a tall man. He has a kind and pleasant face, his 
eyes are like eagles' eyes and his muscles stand out 
like cords. 

He is telling of thrilling adventures and his story 
is really meant for their fathers and mothers and big 



20 



brothers — but you may be sure the children do not 
miss a word of it. Their eyes glow with excite- 
ment as the ''Long Hunter" goes on to tell of the 
beautiful country — the lovely land of the blue grass 
— which opened out before them when the long, long 
miles of dark forest came suddenly to an end. 
Once more the travelers could see sky and sun- 
shine. There were sparkling, running waters, gor- 
geous flowers and great prairies of long grass; it 
was all so beautiful and good that it was like para- 
dise — so the hunter says, but it is not the beauty 
that makes the eyes and mouths of the listening 
children open wider and wider and their breath to 
come in quick gasps. It was partly the salt springs 
— 'licks" the hunter calls them — for wherever there 
was a "lick" the wild beasts came in throngs. These 
hunters could see them streaming across the vast 
reaches of waving grass land, immense herds of 
big, shaggy-maned buffalo, and great bands of elk 
with splendid, branching antlers, deer without num- 
ber, and bears that could not be counted, wolves 
and panthers. Do you wonder that the eyes of the 
listening boys and girls dance and sparkle? The 
hunter says that these salt-lick game trails — "traces" 
he calls them — have become as wide and as hard as 
city streets under the trampling of these thousands 
of hoofs during years without number. But most 
thrilling are the stories of other trails — the Indian 
war trails — for this beautiful game-filled country is 
the favorite hunting ground of tribes living north 
and south of it. None of them dare to live in it, 
and each fights to keep the others out. Much less 
shall the paleface come in ! Any white man ven- 
turing in must do it at the risk of his life. 

The Long Hunter and one of his companions 
were captured by these ferocious Indians. They es- 
caped after awhile, but the story of what happened 
during their captivity is enough to make the chil- 
dren's hearts stand still. If you have read "The 
Deerslayer" you know something about it ! 



And I fancy you know the man who is telHng the 
story ! He is that prince of hunters and explorers — 
Daniel Boone. 

There is not much sleep for the children that 
night, and possibly not for their big brothers, for 
Daniel Boone's stories make a tremendous stir 
among these young frontiersmen. This little settle- 
ment where they live does not hold out many 
chances for home and fortune. But what possibili- 
ties are in this fertile country far "out West" ! to 
say nothing of its excitement and dangers, which 
perhaps attract as much. 

At any rate, all through the winter the children 
continually hear snatches of most tantaHzing talk — 
just enough to make them "crazy" to hear more. 
Whenever the grown-up people get together the talk 
goes on. At length five families and perhaps forty 
men of the settlement decide to go to the new coun- 
try. It is a daring thing to do — to leave all fa- 
miliar things and to go out into the mysterious and 
unknown forest which stretches in a continuous twi- 
light from the mountains almost to the Mississippi. 
But these people have never seen the Mississippi 
river ! So far as they know the forest may stretch 
on to the Pacific coast. 

On a certain Monday in the early spring the long 
journey will begin, and on Sunday there is "evening 
preaching" in the little "church-house" on the moun- 
tain. All the people of the settlement attend the 
service. 

Above the pulpit, high up in the wall, there is a 
window — with a heavy wooden shutter — the church 
has been used for a fort in time of Indian troubles. 
But the window is open now, and through it the 
children see the western mountains all aglow under 
a magnificent sunset. The people are singing — and 
hark! from the sunlighted summits across the val- 
ley come back the softest, sweetest echoes ! 

But the children do not hear the echoes. They 
are watching the clouds — purple, crimson, amber — 



passing in great flocks over a sky exquisite with 
tints of green and gold. Have you ever noticed 
that clouds are always like the things one is thinking 
of ? Then you may know how these glowing clouds 
take shape to our children of the frontier, for their 
thoughts are of the mysterious country beyond 
those mountains and of its fascinating bears and 
buffalo. But the glorious color dies out and the 
purpling mountains are suddenly very solemn and 
"lonesome" — worse than lonesome. 

Why should these black mountains make them 
think all at once of the saddest Indian stories they 
know? 

The sun shines on Monday morning, and to the 
children there is only enjoyment in getting off. 

Of course all the household goods (not very 
many!) must be taken; and all the farming tools; 
and seeds for planting ; and the cows — and the chil- 
dren and the mothers. 

And there are no wagons or carts — of course not, 
for there are no roads — nothing but Indian "traces" 
or the old game trails. 

Shall we look on while these first pioneers for the 
"far West" contrive a way to carry all their goods 
and belongings? 

There they are — in a confused group — all the 
baggage and the children, the cows and the horses 
— the horses ! Why of course ! they can carry the 
loads. There is a great time, though, in getting 
all the baggage securely tied on so that it will not 
slide ofif backward when they are going uphill, or 
forward when they go down ! 

Well, they are packed at last — a patient-looking 
row. Several, though, have only empty saddle-bags ! 
But they are the most interesting, for presently the 
expectant little children are put into them — their 
weight carefully balanced. Now they start. 

First the men walking ahead, carrying their rifles ; 
then the elder children driving the cows ; and after 

23 



them the long row of horses — carrying the baggage, 
the tools, the mothers and the babies. 

These brave people would not own up to it prob- 
ably, — they never complain, — but it is a hard jour- 
ney — an "awfully" hard one you would say. And 
so gloomy! You cannot think how the great dark 
forest stretches out — mile after mile, mile after mile, 
mile after mile — the leaves so thick overhead that 
scarcely a ray of sunlight can squeeze through ; it 
never seems to be morning or noon, but just early 
evening all day long. And these dreadful mountain 
woods are so still and so lonely. Once the men 
hear a sound as of one man calling to another, and 
once there is the report of a gun. But these sounds 
do not make it any more cheerful, for all men in 
these solitudes must be Indians ! Sometimes they 
hear the "gobble, gobble, gobble" of wild turkeys. 
The children like this — all children like turkey — 
but the men, before following the sound, make very 
sure that they are genuine "gobbles" and not Indian 
imitations, for hunters are often lured to their death 
by these calls. 

But at night when the wolves howl it is not still, 
though to the children it does seem more "lonesome" 
than ever. 

Now and then there is a blessed opening in the 
forest; the trees stand far apart, the sun shines on 
glowing rhododendron and laurel, the birds sing, 
and a gay little river rushes across their path. 

They ford the river or swim it! In these open 
places there is plenty of game, which is a good thing, 
but the little company have their own troubles in 
getting it cooked, for they must be careful that the 
smoke from their fire does not bring Indians. Once 
when they know there are Indians near by they 
build their fire two miles from the camp ! 

It is a hard, hard journey ! But at last they reach 
the lovely land of the blue grass and they have been 
as long in reaching it as you need be in going 
around the world. 

24 



PART TWO 

IT is a beautiful country, and the pioneers have 
arrived at one of the very loveliest times of 
the year, when the trees are in full leaf, and the 
dogwood and red bud in bloom. The air is almost 
heavy with sweet-smelling things, and filled with 
the song of bright-flashing birds. But even the chil- 
dren must not venture to enjoy all this until they 
can do so from the safe shelter of a fort. This is 
an Indian country, although for a little time the 
tribes are held somewhat in check by various 
treaties. 

So all the little company, as best they can, help 
in the making of the fort or stockade. They first 
build log cabins in an even row. The backs of these 
form one side of the palisade; the spaces between 
them are filled with a high stockade made of heavy 
timbers placed upright in the ground; on the other 
sides of the square are similar stockades, all of them 
loop-holed. At the corners and in the centre of the 
square they build strong, loop-holed two-story block- 
houses, and in the sides place great doors or gates 
with strong, heavy bars to be used when necessary. 

Once inside the fort our children will be safe 
from everything except fire or a surprise; but in- 
creasing watchfulness guards against these dangers, 
and the forts are rarely captured or destroyed. 

It is pleasant to know that in this far-away wil- 
derness, shut off from civilization by hundreds of 
miles of almost impassable country (I leave it to 
you to think why it should be more difficult to get 
back to the settled country east of the mountains 
than it has been to leave it to come westward!) 
our pioneers already have some neighbors — white- 
skinned neighbors — for the truth is that Daniel 
Boone's stories of the fine and fertile land he had 
found spread like wild-fire among the frontiersmen 
of the colonies of Virginia, North Carolina and even 
of Pennsylvania; with the result that four pioneer 
parties, each without knowledge of the other, reach 

25 



this beautiful region about tlie same time, and, if we 
could but hear them, axes are now ringing and forts 
going up in all the settlements. 

Our children have the leadership of Boone him- 
self — and their settlement is called Boonesborough. 
The other stockades, about thirty miles to the south- 
west, are named Harrodstown, BoiUng Springs and 
Logan's Station. 

When the forts were about finished Henderson, 
the man who had planned Boonesborough, issued a 
call to the other settlements to send delegates to a 
convention about to be held to make laws to govern 
this little colony of the wilderness. 

One goes to Washington nowadays to see and 
hear the lawmakers, but I think this *'Elm Tree 
Legislature" must have been much more interesting. 

It is certainly a very great occasion to our chil- 
dren of the frontier, who, early in the morning, 
gather to watch the ''representatives" beginning to 
arrive. There are seventeen in all. The ''hall" — 
just outside the stockade — is a level field of white 
clover, in the midst of which is a magnificent elm 
tree. Its wide-spreading branches can certainly 
shelter a hundred men from the burning rays of the 
sun. Just look up through the curling plumes! 
Never are blue sky and foamy white clouds so beau- 
tiful as when seen through the branches of an elm 
tree! And ever through the leaves are flashes of 
scarlet and gold, and ever float downward silvery 
showers of sweetest music. No "rotunda" can equal 
this — and wherever was there such a carpet as this 
green and white field of clover ! 

And the "representatives" ! Are not fringed 
buckskin shirts and leather caps and leggings and 
rifles and knives more interesting than black clothes 
and stiff linen collars and — watch-fobs? At any 
rate, the frontier dress becomes these strong, grave, 
fearless-looking men — whose eagle eyes never lose 
their alert watchfulness — and whose rifles are ever 
ready to their hand, even amidst all the keen inter- 

26 



est of the discussion and "speeches." But let us lis- 
ten to the laws they make — in this first little '*Amer- 
ica" of the West. 

First there are game laws ! for, can you believe it 
— buffalo, elk and deer are already becoming scarce 
where Boone had seen those great streams of ani- 
mals coming down to the salt licks. Even now the 
hunters have to go fifteen or twenty miles to find 
any number of them. And until the corn shall ripen 
the people must live on game. 

So severe laws are enacted to stop useless slaugh- 
ter, and the killing off of game by "foreign" hunt- 
ers who kill — only for the sake of the skins and furs. 

There are laws about holding court, about regu- 
lating militia, and for punishing criminals. 

One of the members of this elm tree convention 
is a clergyman ; he proposes the law forbidding pro- 
fane swearing and Sabbath-breaking — but the rest 
pass it! 

A law is passed "to protect the game" — Boone 
proposes it ; "to preserve the breed of horses" ; this, 
too, he proposes, and "to protect the range," or 
natural pasture where the branded horses and cattle 
of the pioneers range at will. The Kentucky range 
at that time was fine, rich in fine grass, cane and the 
wild pea vine, and the animals could graze on it all 
through the year. Finally, they agree upon relig- 
ious freedom and toleration for all sects. Pretty 
good for the year 1775 ! And it is a happy thing, 
for there is a great variety of religious belief among 
the settlers. The larger number are Presbyterians, 
but there are Baptists and Methodists and some Ro- 
man Catholics from Maryland, while the first relig- 
ious service at Boonesborough — the first in Ken- 
tucky — is conducted by a clergyman of the Church 
of England. 

But do you not miss something in this first legis- 
lature? — for you know we are always thinking of 
our frontier children — and there seems to be no law 
for establishing schools. 

27 




CHAPTER THIRD 

' ' The flat-bottomed boat ran altogether down- stream. 
Hence it led altogether away from home ajid from 
the East. The Western man was relying upon himself, 
cutting loose from tradition, asking help of no man; 
sacrificing, perhaps, a little of sentime7it, but doifig 
so out of necessity, and only because of the one great 
fact that water would not run back up-hill, would 
not carry him back to that East which was once his 
home. So the homes and the graves in the West 
grew, and there arose a civilization distifict and 
different from that which kept hold upon the sea 
and upon the old world. ' ' 

ON a certain bright morning long ago, the front 
door of a house on Water street in the city 
of Philadelphia opened and a troop of chil- 
dren with their father and mother came sedately 
down the white marble steps. 

Shut your eyes a moment and look at them. 
The boys' clothes and their stiff hats are exactly 
like their father's — only not so large; and the little 
girls' short-waisted dresses, their shawls ( !) and 
bonnets are precisely like their mother's — only 
smaller. 

The father and mother walk ahead — the children 
two-by-two, and hand-in-hand follow after. They 
look very sober — these funnily dressed children — 

28 



and walk along gravely. Their hearts beat quickly, 
though, and their eyes sparkle. They are full of 
happy thoughts. 

If it were not for their tight clothes and the way 
they have been taught they would skip along, and 
laugh and shout for very gladness; for is not this 
the long looked for day upon which they are to start 
out on a most wonderful and delightful journey? 
As they think! 

The beautiful blue Delaware flashes and sparkles 
before them — but these children are not going 
"down stream" on the Delaware! — Presently they 
turn away from the river, walking a little way on 
Chestnut street. They pass the hall where awhile 
ago the Declaration of Independence had been 
signed. As they go by, the bell which we know now 
as "Old Liberty" rings out. They turn to the south, 
cross Walnut street, Locust and Spruce streets. 
This is certainly a tree-named city ! 

On the corner of Pine street there is a church. 
The father and mother climb the steps — the chil- 
dren still follow after — Down the long aisle they 
go; all the way to the very front pew, which seems 
to be almost under the high pulpit. The father, by 
grave waves of his hand, indicates that John and 
WilHam and Nancy are to enter this pew; then the 
mother; after her little Betsy and Sarah and 
Thomas, and finally the father takes his seat and 
shuts the pew door. The church is crowded with 
people ; there is a long row of ministers in the pul- 
pit, and one of them preaches an even longer ser- 
mon. The hymns are long too ; everything is long, 
and these tightly-dressed children are most uncom- 
fortable. 

About three hours pass — then there is a little com- 
motion among the ministers in the pulpit. The pas- 
tor of the church finds a hymn, and hands the 
hymn book to the minister at the end of the long 
row — He looks at the hymn, gives his head a vigor- 
ous shake "No!" and the book passes to the next 

29 



in the row. He shakes his head— the next shakes 
his head. They all do, evidently declining to do 
something the minister asks of them. So he steps 
in front of the pulpit — he is very solemn-looking — 
and says to the congregation: "We have gathered 
here to-day to say farewell to our dear friends who 
are about to go out as missionaries to Pittsburg. 
They are going into great dangers and perils, and 
it is likely that they will soon die. In anticipation 
of^ this sad event, we zvill now sing their funeral 
dirge" : Then he gave out this hymn : 

"Why should we mourn departing friends, 
Or shrink at death's alarms?" 

And they do sing it! — the whole hymn — s-l-o-w- 
1-y, to the doleful tune of ''China." 

The father and mother do not "shrink" — but 
keep up brave hearts, and the children follow after ! 

They do not stay in Pittsburg, however, but go 
"down-stream" to a settlement on the bank of the 
Ohio river, where dangers and perils are perhaps 
even greater. 

The journey down the Ohio is certainly perilous 
enough, but waterways are easier than land trails, 
and the rush to the West is at this time down- 
stream. It will be so until these children have 
grown up ! By that time there may be a change for 
the better in ways of traveling. In fact, at the 
very time that our missionary children are drifting 
down the Ohio in a flat-bottomed boat, in danger 
every moment from Indians, a boy is growing up 
who will in a few years make it possible to go even 
up-stream, and in a vessel which will of itself strike 
terror into the Indians! You all know this boy! 

It is a great thing, though, to go down-stream, 
for the flat-bottomed scow, with its square ends, 
can easily carry all the belongings of the pioneer — 
even his live stock. There are other boats, log 
rafts and the bark canoes and the pirogues — which 
is a prettier name than "dugout," but it means the 
same thing. In low water these boats are some- 

30 



times a month in making the trip from Pittsburg to 
the Falls of the Ohio — but the river is fortunately 
high when our children go down — for all the In- 
dians are on the warpath and in the thick forests 
on the river banks are many trails. It is like run- 
ning the gauntlet to get through. They do get 
through, but with many narrow escapes. 

When they reach their journey's end, their real 
troubles begin. It is a terrible thing to pass clear- 
ing after clearing, where the settlers have been 
killed or taken captive, the house burned and all 
growing things destroyed. 

They see all these things as they hurry to the 
stockade where only they can be safe. Once inside, 
they find everyone making ready for an attack. 
The women are making bullets, even the twelve- 
year-old boys are ''fort soldiers," and to each has 
been given a gun and a loophole ! The bullet-mak- 
ing goes on all night. In the very early dawn 
watchers in the high block-houses see some Indian 
scouts hiding in a cornfield. This means that a 
large party are near who mean to surprise the fort. 
The men, and women too, are cool and fearless in 
this prospect; but a sudden remembrance brings 
dismay. 

There is no water in the stockade ! and the spring 
is outside at the foot of the hill! What can be 
done ? '* Why," say the women, "we will go out and 
get water !" They take their pails and buckets, the 
big gate is unbarred and out they go, down to the 
bottom of the hill — facing those hiding Indians all 
the way. Some are young girls — almost children — 
would yoii like to be one of them? The girls do 
show some nervousness, but the older women are as 
cool as possible, talking and laughing together, and 
by their unconcern they completely deceive the In- 
dians who are lurking near by — and who fear that 
if they attack the women, all chance of surprising 
the fort will be lost. But the women are hardly in- 
side the gate when the attack on the fort is begun. 

31 



It does seem likely that the Philadelphia minis- 
ter's fears will come true ! 

But the strong palisades hold out, though burn- 
ing arrows are shot on to the roofs of the cabins and 
burning torches are brought to the walls. At last 
the Indians give up the fight and withdraw to the 
northern woods. Who can say, though, when they 
will come again? 

But settlers are pouring into the country — some 
coming by pack train over the Wilderness Road, but 
many more by the river trails. 

We have not paid much attention to the pioneer 
mothers — who were the bravest of the brave. Al- 
ways that ; and the cheeriest and most patient teach- 
ers and guides of the boys and girls when the In- 
dians allowed them any peace and quiet. Many a 
man now living can look back to years of frontier 
life when all his teaching was given by his mother, 
and often from her one book — the Bible. 

But now and then the hearts of even these cour- 
ageous mothers faltered. Especially so on the com- 
ing in of the pack trains, when afar off they could 
hear the musical klingle, klangle, klingle of the cow 
bells. 

Was there ever such a homesick sound as this 
tinglelingle of the bells? For, when these mothers 
were children they had driven home the cows many 
and many a time. 

"With klingle, klangle, klingle 
Way down the dusty dingle 
The cows are coming home. 
Now sweet and clear and faint and low 
The airy twinklings come and go 
Like chimings from some far off tower, 
Or patterings of an April shower 

That makes the daisies grow. 
Ko-klarg, ko-klarg, ke-linglelingle, 

Way down the darkening dingle, 

The cows come slowly home ; 
And old time friends, and twilight plays 
And starry nights and sunny days 
Come trooping up the misty ways 

When the cows come home." 

32 



So the bells sounded to the mothers on the fron- 
tier. 

Nevertheless, cow bells were among the most pre- 
cious possessions of the Kentucky pioneer. Else how 
would they ever have found the cows when they 
wandered off? And they would break away into 
the forest, even on the Wilderness Road. Such 
times as the children had in finding them ! and very 
often in not finding them, for not every cow had a 
bell. 

It was about this time that a man sold a mile — a 
square mile at that — of fine fertile land for three 
oxen and a cow bell ! 

But the pack trains brought more than memories 
with them. They carried news of what was then 
going on in the old homes across the Alleghanies. 
Great things! and after a while the men of "the 
West" would have great part in them. 

The people who came — by pack train or by boat 
— were warmly welcomed. 

All kinds of people ! and many, many children. 
You can think how you would be likely to grow up, 
if you were on the constant lookout for danger; 
and if you were always cool and courageous when 
it came ! If you had either to do without things 
or make them for yourself; if you had to decide 
many matters for yourself and decide quickly ; if you 
had constant share in the destruction of human life 
— in short, if your circumstances were like those of 
the children of the frontier! Well! they grow up 
just that way. 

As the children grow, and the Indians' raids cease 
for a time, the clearings — ''farms" they are begin- 
ning to be called — become more comfortable homes. 

There are in the villages a few frame dwellings, 
for lumber can easily be brought "down-stream"; 
and many large log houses. Orchards planted by 
the first settlers are now bearing fruit, and other 
fruits and vegetables flourish; but you will notice 
that still the fields of maize are planted not very 

33 



near the houses; for the tall stalks furnish hiding- 
places for the Indians and the Indians have not 
vanished from their old hunting grounds, although 
the animals they hunted have! 

There are clergymen and school teachers in these 
frontier communities, who have great influence on 
the life of the people. 

Rough log meeting-houses and rougher log 
schools are springing up everywhere. But the 
school books are few indeed; a Bible or a Testa- 
ment, a primer, a spelling book and a small arithme- 
tic. That is all. But from these poor schools have 
come some of the greatest of Americans. 

Do you think it was mostly the school training 
or the training of the frontier that made them great ? 

The children of the frontier are the children of 
pioneers, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of 
pioneers. We see them standing in their "clear- 
ings," gazing wistfully out over the golden path to 
the sunset. For always they hear as did their fa- 
thers, the Voice of the West, calling, caUing, from 
mountain and forest and prairie. They cannot re- 
sist it. Some day they will arise and follow, and 
themselves become pioneers to a new frontier. Just 
watch and see if it is not so ! 



34 




CHAPTER FOURTH 

''How very diverse in character and manners, in 
enterprise and expectation ivere tJie pioneers who 
subdued the wilderness of the Old Northwest! But 
—when all had Jinitedin a common cause, when the 
weak were uplifted by the strong, when the bad were 
improved by contact with the good, when intelli- 
gence triu7nphed over ignorance— what a race of 
giants were they!'' 



ARE you not rather tired of Indians and their 
unending barbarities and cruelties? 

The pioneers of the down-stream days 
were— utterly weary and almost discouraged, for 
the utmost foresight and coolness and desperate 
darmg, seemed to count for nothing. Always on 
the long trails leading from the Great Lakes to the 
Ohio river were bands of stealthy, quick-moving, 
quiet-footed savages, whose burning and killing and 
tortures laid waste and desolate the fair homes of 
the settlers. 

One day there came into the mind of a young 
frontiersman in Kentucky a plan which would, if 
successfully carried out, put an end to Indian raids 
from the North. 

35 



To carry out his plan, he himself, with as many 
followers as he could muster, went on the warpath ! 

His wise plans and his magnificent courage and 
endurance won the day and resulted in stopping the 
Indian horrors and in giving to the United States 
the great territory which we now call the Old 
Northwest — the country lying west of the Allegha- 
nies and stretching northward from the Ohio river 
to the Great Lakes, and westward to the Mississippi. 

When it came into the possession of the United 
States it was exceedingly new — untrodden forest 
and prairie — but rich and fertile beyond compare. 

Let us take a bird's-eye view of things in the 
spring following the settlement of all questions re- 
garding the opening of this great country now 
"reaching out to those who will first voutsafe to 
possesse, inhabite and till it!" 

What do we see? Not a solitary man here and 
there, setting out for the wilderness to carve out of 
it a home for himself and his children; nor a few 
pack trains tinkling along over the Wilderness 
Road; not only canoes and square-end scows drift- 
ing down-stream, but — from New England and 
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, 
Virginia — in short from almost every state in the 
Union, are streams of people, walking, on horse- 
back, or in creaking Canastota wagons ; there are 
long strings of pack horses, and flat boats and all 
other kinds of boats by hundreds — all eagerly "go- 
ing West" to the new land of promise. 

In the wagons and the boats are many, rhany 
happy-hearted children — they do well to be hopeful 
and happy, for never has there been a more glorious 
opportunity to gain and to be all that life offers. We 
are interested in all these children, but most eager 
to see some who are setting out from New England. 
Do you remember Experience and Preserved, and 
the other children of the Mayflower days? But 
these are Mayflower days too, and these high- 
spirited boys and girls are the great-great — how 

36 



many greats ?— grandchildren of Experience and the 
rest ! 

There are roads in New England now ! and upon 
them in all kinds of queer-looking vehicles, and on 
foot, we see these new pioneers gathering to the 
place of starting. They have more possessions than 
our first friends had, and the long wagons in which 
they set out are heavily loaded. This Ohio Com- 
pany has sent word ahead and when they reach the 
Youghiogheny (this dreadful looking name sounded 
to the children like Yohogani) river there awaiting 
them is a long barge built for them and named the 
Mayflower. 

The Company go aboard, their baggage is put on, 
and the new Mayflower is swiftly propelled down 
the river, which is swollen and turbulent from the 
spring rains; it gHdes into the Monongahela; and 
then into the beautiful Ohio— and makes rapid pro- 
gress to the mouth of the Muskingum ; which they 
reach early in the morning. It is a foggy spring 
morning and what do you think is the very first 
object the children see through the mists? A 
stockade fort! Fort Harmar, it is. But happily, 
they do not see any Indians, and presently they 
land on a lovely spot. These pioneers are real 
New Englanders, and we are not surprised at their 
quickness and energy. 

Log cabins go up; ground is cleared, corn is 
planted and a stockade— called Campus Martins! 
—is built for security in case any Indians should 
appear. 

So was begun the first American settlement in 
the Old Northwest, and the next time you visit the 
city of Marietta, and see its churches and the col- 
lege, just remember these first comers and their 
energetic leader. 

But do you not wonder why it was that such 
crowds of home-makers poured into this new coun- 
try to ''inhabite and till it?" When there was still 
so much unoccupied land nearer home. 

37 



You remember that our pioneers up to this time 
have had to fight all their own battles. Each man 
for himself or each little community for itself. 

But in the Northwest Territory, Uncle Sam 
promised his help — when it came to fighting In- 
dians. 

This partly accounts for the great rush of set- 
tlers; another reason was the cheapness and splen- 
did fertility of the land, but there was still another 
cause, and this accounts for the very large number 
of educated and refined people who very soon emi- 
grated to this far-western country — really farther 
distant, if you keep in mind the difficulties of reach- 
ing it, than the Philippines are now! 

It was this way — when the Northwest Territory 
became a part of the public lands of the United 
States, Congress made laws by which it should be 
governed. 

Two or three of these laws are specially interest- 
ing to us, for we remember the three objects of our 
first pioneers to New England : Christian homes, 
free education and the right to worship God accord- 
ing to their conscience. 

Listen then to these laws: 

Every person shall have the right to worship 
as he believes best. In every Congressional town- 
ship of thirty-six sections of land one section (six 
hundred and forty acres) shall be reserved "for 
the maintenance of common schools within the said 
township." 

Do you wonder that New Englanders flocked to 
this country? 

These were some of the laws of what is called 
"The Ordinance of 1787," and from the time it was 
passed it has been the custom in the West to set 
apart for educational purposes one thirty-sixth of 
all the public land, so that now every Western state 
in the Union has a magnificent school fund. 

In the Old Northwest the result of the sale of 
this thirty-sixth part means nearly twenty million 

38 



dollars for the fine education of its children; in 
addition to this each state was given one entire 
township — a little more than twenty-three thousand 
acres — for the founding and support of a state uni- 
versity. 

This is what the old "Ordinance" says : Religion, 
morality and knowledge being necessary to good 
government and the happiness of mankind, schools 
and the means of education should forever he en- 
couraged. 

We do not want to forget that the five noble 
states of the Old Northwest with all their splendid 
opportunity and with all that they mean for 
America came to us through the brains and daring 
and courage of that young Kentucky frontiersman 
—George Rogers Clark, the Pioneer on the War- 
path ! 



39 




CHAPTER FIFTH 

''Major Long's expedition up the Platte brought 
hack the ' important fact ' that the ' whole division of 
North America drained by the Missouri and the 
Platte and their tributaries between the meridian 
of the fnouth of the Platte and the Rockies is 
almost entirely unfit for cultivation, and therefore 
uninhabitable for an agricultural people! ' ' ' 



WE shall see presently whether Major Long 
was correct in his judgment! But it is 
certainly a fact that the pioneers of the 
Long Trail are not home-builders. What then are 
they? 

We shall soon find out if we follow a group of 
young men of the frontier who are about to set out 
for the Northwest. They start up — up? — the Mis- 
sissippi in a very queer looking boat which has oars 
and a sail and a tracking line. But the last we 
knew, the boats would go only down-stream — What 
has happened? No, it is not that water has be- 
gun to run up hill, but that this queer boat is so 
contrived that it can be pushed up-stream, against 
the current. 

It is slow and "awfully" hard work, though, to 
get it up. The sun blazes down in these summer days 
on the heads of the crew bent over the setting poles, 

40 



and in the winter icy winds cut them, but they are 
a hardy set of men and notwithstanding the heat or 
the cold steadily trudge the walking-boards from 
mornmg till night, and day after day, until they 
come at length to shallower water which will not 
float the boat; they change now to the "canoe of 
the north." It is thirty feet long and made of birch 
bark; or, where no birch bark can be found, of sun 
dried buflfalo hides. There are sometimes rapids in 
the river, and the boat must be carried around then 
through a dense forest. Presently the water is too 
shallow for the big canoes; then the little Indian 
canoes take up the trail and carry the travelers far, 
far into the solitudes of the unknown country. 

Finally they reach the last tiny silver thread of 
the water trail. What now? They obtain from the 
Indians a dog *'travois"; or, as we should call it 
from its appearance, a pole frame. 

The Indians of the Northwest make much use of 
this queer vehicle ; often one may see a great copper 
kettle lashed to the poles and in the kettle are piled 
babies, moccasins, puppies and other property. In 
the winter, and when hitched to a proper sledge six 
dogs can draw a thousand pounds over the snow. 
The travois carries our pioneers' burdens until the 
trails are lost in the forest ; after this each man car- 
ries his own pack on his own back. 

They have traveled three thousand miles on the 
Long Trail! 

Now that they are in the wild forests you see 
v/hat they are— trappers and fur traders. Presently 
they will come down the trail with a load of rich 
furs, which then will be sold in St. Louis for a very 
large sum of money. 

These pioneers bring back with the furs some 
fine stories, to which the children listen as delight- 
edly as the boys and girls of the Yadkin listened to 
the stories of Daniel Boone. 

Some of their best tales are of a land they call 
"Oregon" ; the eager child listeners long remember 

41 



these stories. They will recall them perhaps in the 
days when they shall be crossing the Rockies to 
"settle" in Oregon! 

The trappers wander far in search of the richest 
furs; one of them follows a trail to the south and 
discovers a fine old city in the midst of Spanish 
gardens. This discovery leads to the use of another 
Indian trail. 

Keel-boats and canoes, the bateau, the bull-boat 
and "corvelles" will not do here, for this is a dry 
country; so for many a year we see trains of pack 
horses or mules following the Long Trail to Santa 
Fe. 

The horses give way after a time to the big, white 
covered wagon. There are sometimes in one com- 
pany one hundred wagons, two hundred men and 
eight hundred oxen. 

The wagons travel in two parallel columns with 
a space of thirty feet between the columns. The 
loose animals are driven along in this space. Scouts 
are always on the lookout for parties of Indians, and 
give quick warning in case any are seen. The 
trainmaster gives a signal, the oxen are halted, the 
head and rear wagons of the two columns turn in 
toward each other and the caravan, loaded mostly 
with bales of cotton stuffs, becomes a fortification. 
It takes ten weeks — often longer — to travel the 
Long Trail. The caravan makes two trips a year, 
going out in the spring and returning in the fall. 

There is one trail that follows the path to the sun- 
set. 

While the fur traders' boats traveled northwest- 
ward, and the Santa Fe pack horses and wagon 
teams trailed southwest, a man in California one day 
found some yellow grains in the sands of a river. 
The finding of such yellow grains never fails to 
throw the whole world into a fever of excitement. 
Now the Long Trail seems to grow shorter and to 
lose its perils, — when there is the prospect of win- 
ning a fortune in gold at the end of it ! 

42 



There is a wild, wild rush to the gold mines. 
People brave the dangers of the plains, the Indians, 
the great American desert, the fevers of the Isth- 
mus of Panama, and the perils of the voyage around 
Cape Horn, in their desire to reach the gold fields. 

Do you remember old King Midas, whose touch 
turned everything — even his food — to gold, so that 
he was in danger of dying of starvation? The 
miners are in danger of the same thing. Gold have 
they in plenty, but no bread ! They are not like the 
trappers, whose rifles provide them with food. The 
miners must be fed! How? and by whom? All 
supplies are nearly three thousand miles away. 

This is the reason for the great pack trains over 
the westward trail, and never were there any pack 
trains like these! 

A good pack-master did not hesitate at anything; 
whatever the miners .wanted he succeeded in "pack- 
ing" to them. 

They "packed" cookstoves, and at least one piano. 
They made a sort of a wooden sling for it and hung 
it between four mules — two in front and two be- 
hind! The piano reached the mining camp unin- 
jured, though it cost a thousand dollars to get it 
there. 

Wood was packed to the camps ; and hay, boxes 
and trunks and even packages of glassware and 
cases of eggs ! 

The outfitting and freighting points became cities 
after awhile — Lewiston, Walla Walla, Portland and 
Denver. 

You cannot fancy who was first on the ground 
where Denver is now. 

But you remember that the children of pioneers 
often become pioneers ? Daniel Boone's son became 
a pioneer; so did his grandson, and his grandson 
was the first man to camp where Denver is now, at 
least so they say! 

But packing trains could not supply the demand 
for this enormous overland trade; the wonderful 

43 



''pony express" and the still more wonderfully man- 
aged stage coach routes took the next places on the 
Long Trail. 

The coaches required one thousand horses, five 
hundred mules, and seven hundred men to carry 
them over the Long Trail, and passengers, horses 
and men had a hard time of it. 

They had to face blizzards, cut their way through 
snowdrifts, the swollen mountain streams had to be 
crossed, they went through deserts and over moun- 
tains^but all this seemed as nothing in comparison 
with the horrors of an Indian attack. You have 
seen many pictures of these attacks so you know 
just what they were like. 

The stage coach found the trail too long and be- 
gan to shorten distances and lay out straight lines. 
They saved a thousand miles on the old water- 
ways. 

The mines and this tremendous trade between 
east and west swallowed up the home-makers for a 
time; and "the frontiers" took a long leap west- 
ward. We hear about California, Oregon, Idaho 
and Montana now. Between them and Kentucky, 
Tennessee and Ohio, and the old Northwest are 
thousands of miles! But people at this time are 
getting over the notion that the immense stretches 
of the great country toward the sunset are unfit for 
cultivation, and if we could be near enough, we 
should hear much talk about "going West." 

Once more we see the father and the mother and 
the children start out — pioneers in home-making 
on the prairies. 

They cross the Alleghanies by rail now! Cross 
Ohio — in very uncomfortable railway cars, — in 
such other vehicles as they may be able to get, or on 
foot; passing beyond the little cluster of buildings 
which have since grown into Chicago, they cross the 
Mississippi — pass on to the black mud of the prair- 
ies — and here we shall have our last look at the 



Long Trail. 



44 



Do you see that fleet of white-sailed "prairie 
schooners"? They wind through the waves and 
billows of tall grasses, streaming westward along 
the trail — across Illinois, across Iowa, across the 
Missouri river — westward still. 

There are children in the white-topped wagons; 
happy, healthy little faces look out from every pos- 
sible peephole; other children are gathering flowers 
among the grasses ; they need not fear being left be- 
hind, for those plodding oxen are not at all like a 
lightning express. But they do need to be watch- 
ful of the always dreaded Indians. 

There is one thought in the heart of the fathers — 
a better chance for the babies ! — one hope in the 
hearts of the mothers ! — else they would not have 
left the fair country which they expect never to see 
again. 

They will win the ''chance" ! Of this we feel sure 
— for the spirit of the true pioneer never gives in. 

And so we leave them, eagerly pressing on — over 
the Long Trail. 



45 




CHAPTER SIXTH 

"// was on February 12, 1829, that Philip Evans 
Thomas called together twe?ity-five of the leading 
spirits of Baltimore. Comme7it of the time says that 
he seemed touched with the spirit of prophecy as he 
spoke of that enterprise which was to cast aside the 
mou7itains, to unite the streams, and to discover ;^H 
what there might be in that mysterious land, the 
West — the West which was west of the Alleghanies 
and in or near the Mississippi Valley. Beyond the 
Mississippi,of course , the mind of man might not go!*' 



BUT we have seen that beyond the Mississippi, 
the minds of men and their bodies as well — 
did go! And going beyond the Mississippi 
meant many things — it meant for one thing quicken- 
ing movement. 

No one may now linger by the way ! 
And it must be in this Western spirit that we 
tell our story of the driving of the golden nail. 

It came about in this way — the east needed the 
products of the west — the west needed the products 
of the east, and the people of east and west needed 
to like one another better. Generally speaking, the 
way to like another better is to know him better. 



You see it had been very difficult to "go visiting" by 
''packing" or prairie schooner or even by the pony 
express ! Besides these reasons there was the great 
West between the Mississippi and the Rockies to be 
civiHzed and Christianized. 

The time came when some minds and brains of 
the go-ahead kind thought out a plan to ''cast aside 
mountains and to unite streams" from the Atlantic 
Ocean to the Pacific. 

And now we are going to see the real Pioneer of 
America ! 

He has a task before him. He must climb moun- 
tains for seven thousand feet or more; he must 
cross a great expanse thirteen hundred miles wide, 
which until a very few years ago was marked on 
the map "unexplored desert." It was not very well 
known even at this time, and in one long, long 
stretch of nearly seven hundred miles, there was 
only one white man to be found. 

But — of course — all along the route from Omaha 
westward there were the fiercest Indians. They saw 
a curious thing one day ; motionless on their horses 
they watch — to see what the strange objects may be. 

Flags they know and chains they know — but 
what are those queer three-legged creatures which 
some fearless young men are placing here and there 
over the prairie ? 

They do not know either that following behind 
these young engineers are an army of workers who 
will lay a path for the iron feet of a "horse," swifter 
than the mustang, stronger than the buffalo ! 

In the way of this army are many obstacles and 
dangers, but the Indians are the worst of them all. 
The most terrible happenings in the "Last of the 
Mohicans" do not begin to equal the horrors in the 
path of the pioneer. 

But the work went on. Ground was broken at 
Omaha in 1864; two years later the "railhead" had 
gone ahead two hundred and sixty miles, but by the 
end of 1867, a locomotive could run more than five 

47 , 



hundred miles out on the prairies ! As the Union 
Pacific men pressed westward, the Central Pacific 
men pushed eastward. They crossed the Sierras 
and laid the rails in the Utah desert. The subsidies 
promised by Congress were far larger for moun- 
tainous than for level country, and as the two armies 
of workmen drew near together each tried hard to 
gain the prize — the Central men on their slope, and 
the Union men on the western side of the Rockies. 

"Where metals meet metals" — Congress had said 
should be the joining point, and in April, 1869, they 
meet, at Promontory Point, near Ogden, Utah. 

Let us see what happened a few days afterward, 
on the tenth of May. 

The rival armies of workers were drawn up on 
either side of the tracks. There was also a group 
of officers and invited guests who had come over the 
road to be present at its joining. The spike of 
gold to show the completion of transportation be- 
tween East and West was driven home by a New 
England minister of the Gospel — himself worthy to 
be a "pioneer" — who then offered prayer. A mo- 
ment later the news was flashed by the telegraph 
east and west, and in Chicago, Buffalo and New 
York public thanksgivings were proclaimed. 

You remember the pack train and the white- 
topped wagons trailing down to Santa Fe? 

There came a time when some people thought a 
railroad on the old trail might be worth while. But 
others thought there would never be enough people 
along the line to justify it. Even after courage- 
ous surveyors had staked out a line along the 
Arkansas River to the Rocky Mountains there was 
much doubt about building the road. Considering 
what we know now, it seems rather comical to 
think of what happened just at this time. Can you 
not see a line of wagons trailing along by this staked 
out line? This time we do not receive smiles from 
gay little children ! Far from it, for, peering from 
the wagons with most anxious faces are a commit- 



tee of directors who have come out to see whether 
the road will "pay." They do not see much but 
prairie grass ! but they have learned one thing from 
former experience — that corn will grow on prairie 
grass land, so they pluck up heart, trail home again, 
and advise the building of the road. 

Then they ''hustle," and shortly complete the 
road. You can imagine a great many things that 
were overcome, but you may not think of one ob- 
stacle in the way — not one either, but many thou- 
sands. What were they? Buffalo — great herds of 
them — streaming across the track in such numbers 
that they actually stopped the trains. But men of 
the frontier are equal to a trifle like this! They 
simply add to the usual parts of a locomotive a 
kind of steam gun, and now notice the order of 
things — first, herds of the great clumsy beasts mov- 
ing stolidly across the track ; second, an approaching 
train, whose whistles and roars affected the animals 
no more than would a fly; with the cow-catcher 
right upon — or under them — they pay no heed; the 
''triggers" of the guns are pulled and steam pours 
forth in scalding clouds, result — a furious stampede 
of the buffalo. 

We would notice this railroad because of its ef- 
fect on the old haunts of the buffalo and the Indian 
war-whoop. 

People coming out soon found that corn and 
other things would grow on these prairies, and the 
home-making pioneers began to arrive by tens, by 
hundreds, by thousands. 

"A magician's wand had waved over the country ; 
the magician came over the rails of the Santa Fe 
road." 

But no railroad is, as a pioneer, the equal of the 
"Great Northern." 

Let us stop for a moment in North Dakota — two 
hundred years and more, and two thousand miles 
away from our first little friends. Experience and 
Preserved ! 

49 



up here the air sparkles, the sky is cloudless, and 
miles upon miles of brown, grassy prairie stretch 
out to the horizon. 

This whole region is going to be a great wheat 
country, presently, and into it are pouring thou- 
sands of home-seekers. 

They are going to "possesse and inhabite and 
till" — how many ? — acres that have never felt a plow ; 
to make new towns, and to fill the empty places, 
as we have seen their fathers do before them, as they 
trailed across the Mississippi before the railroad 
came. Before the railroad came! 

Their fathers would gasp for breath could they 
see the way their children "hustle" now. 

Let us see how these successors to the ox team 
and the prairie schooner of the Overland Trail are 
carr}dng into another century the story of the pio- 
neers. 

We see five long passenger trains filled with men, 
women and children — mostly from the Middle 
West, — and six freight trains follow, filled with 
their household goods. 

Besides the household goods each family is al- 
lowed to bring to the new country farming tools 
and ten head of live stock. 

Until their horriestead claims are located, freight 
cars are side tracked and the families live in them, 
as houses. These are rather more comfortable than 
the upturned roots of a tree ! 

But they have horses and wagons, so they soon 
trail out to their claims and build shacks or sod 
houses. The next day the settler begins to break 
ground for spring wheat ! 

They have come to give their children "a chance,'* 
for land costs too much in the old home to start out 
their children with farms. 

So here they are — pioneers^ building up homes as 
did their fathers. 

But they need not wait for schools and churches 
as did their fathers. 

50 



This is the order of events in a "Great Northern" 
town : the railroad tracks, the grain elevator, a rail- 
road station and telegraph office; several banks, a 
"store" and the "main street," which, running out 
on the prairie, is still only a trail. Closely following 
are the school house and the church. 

Next are business blocks of brick or stone, and 
pavements. Presently there are waterworks and a 
lighting plant, and all these "improvements" are 
only a year or two behind the settler when the rail- 
road is the Pioneer ! 



51 




CHAPTER SEVENTH 

''Let Christianity have full play in America, in 
her schools and in her legislature, in her business 
and in her politics, in her homes and in her churches, 
and there will be developed a fine Americanism, and 
there is not hi7tg finer than a fine Americanism!'' 



WE have certainly found, have we not ? that the 
pioneer goes ahead into hard places, know- 
ing that through his courage and forti- 
tude and resolute will, life will be fuller of opportu- 
nity to those who come after him. 

Ever since we saw the Pilgrim Fathers land on 
Plymouth Rock we have followed these courageous 
men as they went out into the wilderness that their 
children might grow up strong in character, sturdy 
"captains of their souls," and free and independent 
in body and in mind. 

But now in this twentieth century there happens 
a strange thing. The crowds we see are not going 
out into the country ! but along many roads are hur- 
rying away from their country homes into the 
cities. 

And at the same time there are coming over the 
sea great ocean "liners" from Europe, bringing 

52 



hundreds of thousands of immigrants; and the 
larger number of these newcomers also are finding 
their way to the cities. 

So the cities are becoming terribly crowded; and 
the more crowded, the greater is the cost of living 
in them; so that even the people who come from 
comfortable houses, set in the midst of God's own 
world of life-giving air and sunshine, of beauty of 
trees and grass and flowers, where food is plentiful 
and the children have "roume" to grow up — are 
many times crowded into small, dark rooms, where 
the sunshine never enters and where there is never 
any fresh air. 

This terrible crowding, the darkness and the poor 
food and no place to play, bring sickness and misery 
to thousands and thousands of children; and very 
many frail little babies open their eyes for just a few 
days on this hopeless world about them — then the 
spark of life dies out. 

There are other dreadful things in the cities and 
towns. Suppose you lived in a dark little crowded 
room, and were kept for long hours at work too 
hard for you — no time to play, scarcely time to 
sleep, with the poorest kind of food. Would you 
skip and laugh and make funny, bright little 
speeches just because they will bubble up all the 
time? And would you be honest and kind and 
good? No; you would be too weak and dull and 
stupid; too tired out to think about being good — 
perhaps too hungry to be honest. There are thou- 
sands of little children who in these crowded places 
grow up in this way. 

Even if they are not at work there is only the 
street in which to spend the time, and you cannot 
even imagine the forlornness of living in the street. 
Some streets are themselves the cause of the sick- 
ness and wretchedness. 

A "bird's-eye view" to-day would show us these 
sorrowful things scattered — like big black blots — 
over our land from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific 

53 



— O, dear, dear, you say, this is too dreadful and too 
hopeless. "From the Atlantic to the Pacific !" That 
is awfully far! 

But wait a moment ! Think of that day the May- 
flower landed at Plymouth. In all the long way 
westward from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, 
there was not a white man's house, not a farm, nor 
a school, nor a church, nor a Bible, but everywhere 
on the endless way toward the sunset were mighty 
forests, and high mountains, swamps, and burning 
plain and scorching desert and savage beasts and 
more savage men — all to be conquered, if homes are 
to be made. One tree at a time, one mountain at a 
time, and the Indians, one by one. 

And they have been conquered! by the Pioneer, 
with his axe and rifle and his stout heart. 

We need now tzventieth century pioneers who 
will go ahead as the old pioneer did and with 
brains, courage and resolution equal to his, open the 
way in overcoming these new obstacles for those 
who will follow him. 

The twentieth century pioneer goes boldly for- 
ward into these dark places; he knows that city 
conditions are likely to continue for a long time to 
come; so of course it is the business of good citi- 
zens to make the city the right kind of a place for 
children to grow up in. Little children must play. 
It would be a queer nation where the children did 
not play — worse than Puritan times, for there was 
then at least plenty of outdoor and interesting work 
to be done. At all events, this pioneer of play is 
going to make a tremendous difference in the char- 
acters of children who must grow up in the city. 

The twentieth century pioneer thinks that the 
sickness and misery of thousands of these children 
may be prevented; and not only their sickness, but 
their stupidity and ignorance, and much of their 
wrong-doing. And he is going on ahead to show 
how it may be done. He does not carry an axe and 
rifle — he is much more likely to have a microscope 

54 



and some queerly-shaped bottles— but he is as 
strong and courageous as the old pioneer and much 
more gentle and kind. He is willing to give up his 
life for those he is trying to save from suffering. 

Some day you may read stories of the days when 
the yellow fever filled the land with terror. You 
will read of doctors and nurses who went to the 
stricken cities to fight the fever. But the twentieth 
century pioneer believed that it could be prevented. 
It needed courage to go ahead and point out the 
way • nevertheless this pioneer went straight ahead 
and lost his life in doing so; but the fear and terror 
of yellow fever have now forever passed away. 

There is another sickness worse than yellow fever 
which is taking away the life and strength of thou- 
sands of children; the pioneers are showing us how 
to prevent it and they tell us that after awhile tuber- 
culosis will disappear "from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific" as have the old tangled wildernesses. 

Our new sort of pioneer is trying to get air and 
sunshine into those horrible "dark rooms —or 
rather he is battering away at the ramshackle old 
tenements until they disappear, and where they and 
the blind alleys that lead to them are now, there will 
soon be the sunniest and breeziest play-ground 
imaginable; and there is no question about it--sun- 
shine and fresh air do help people to do right, and 
the awful dark and airless rooms almost compel 
them to do wrong. 

And v/hile this pioneer is pulling down the old 
houses, he is also showing how new ones should be 
built • in them air can find its way to all the rooms 
and it will be fresh and wholesome air because an- 
other noble pioneer has "blazed a trail ' to show 
how cities may be made and kept clean. 

A twentieth century pioneer— a Society having 
hosts of members— is forging ahead to show how to 
free from the bondage of hard labor those thousands 
of little children of whom we spoke a moment ago. 



55 



Watch this pioneer! He is going to accompHsh 
great things. 

There is a pioneer — a man, not a society — who is 
doing a wonderful thing. 

He lives up in the cold country of the northwest, 
where a while ago we saw the home makers rush 
in by tens of thousands ''to inhabite and till" the rich 
prairie land. 

The soil is rich, and almost everything will grow 
in it, and in the long days of the hot summer come 
to perfection. Knowing this, the happy possessors 
of farms planted liberally and set out orchards and 
sowed great stretches of alfalfa. There were high 
hopes and bright prospects. All these were dashed 
to pieces when the thermometer fell to 50 degrees or 
so below zero, and remained there until small fruits 
and orchards and alfalfa and high hopes were all 
alike frozen to death. 

A boy growing up on a farm saw these disheart- 
ening things happen many times, and set himself to 
learn from nature how to save the homes of the 
northwest. 

He is a man now, and he has learned how to 
conquer not only the intense cold, but drouth, and 
blasting winds, and plant diseases. 

What were the obstacles of the old pioneers — a 
few Indians and some trees of the forest — compared 
with these foes ! 

His great discovery will lead to homes of health 
and prosperity in Canada as well as America, and 
when you shall go over the new railroad to spend 
a summer on Hudson Bay, doubtless you will pass 
on your way happy homes and schools and churches, 
apple orchards and alfalfa fields, and at Port Nelson 
luxuriate in strawberries and cream, all made pos- 
sible by this pioneer's devotion to the well-being of 
his fellow-men. To this well-being he is giving his 
life, risking it often in his search after knowledge. 

An old saying is, "He who makes two blades of 
grass grow where one grew before, is a benefac- 

56 



tor," — one who does good. What can we say then, 
of a twentieth century pioneer who is making — not 
two — but countless millions of blades of grass, and 
orchards of fruit, and miles of wheat — grow where 
none grew before! and has thereby made happy 
Christian homes a possibility for thousands of fami- 
lies? 

There is another splendid twentieth century pio- 
neer. Probably you know his name ! If you do not, 
lots of boys and girls do. And when they grow to 
be men and women — strong, resolute Christian men 
and women, doing the right with all their might, 
they will bless the man who went ahead to show 
how to save, not to ruin, boys and girls who had be- 
gun to "go wrong." 

For many and many a year countless people have 
been "putting an enemy in their mouth to steal away 
their brains" — not only their brains, but their hearts 
too, as their unhappy children know. 

In the nineteenth century, and even in the eight- 
eenth, people tried hard to rout this enemy, but 
the twentieth century pioneers are using new wea- 
pons. They are taking temptation out of the way ; 
but they are also training boys and girls in self- 
control, so that if temptation appear, they shall not 
yield to it. It will help mightily in taking out those 
black blots to conquer this enemy. 

The old pioneers believed in out-door work — 
good, honest work — for their children. The new 
pioneers believe in it too — tremendously — but they 
have not "all out-doors" to offer as the Mayflower 
people had. But there are more ways than one of 
doing things — so these pioneers think. If there is 
not enough "garden" for each child having the 
right to use it, to work a tiny plot all summer, why 
then several children must in turn dig and plant. 
How eagerly the first one works ! How intense his 
interest when his "seeds come up" and grow and 
blossom ; and most of all when the baby vegetables 
appear — but how bitter the disappointment should 

57 



it so happen that before his "crop" is ripe, he must 
give up the plot to that httle chap who is most anx- 
iously awaiting his "turn !" 

But you notice this, that while the boy has had 
his garden, he has learned lots of interesting things, 
and not once has the "cop" on the beat had to speak 
to him ! 

It was not a twentieth century pioneer who first 
helped to make possible the lessening of the suffer- 
ings of animals — though it is perhaps a twentieth 
century idea to add to their enjoyment of life ; but 
there are multitudes of people still who seem not 
to care when helpless creatures suffer, notwithstand- 
ing that long ago there was One who taught "the 
art of being kind" to terrified little lambs lost on the 
mountain side, and to animals that had helplessly 
fallen in a ditch. 

I wonder if here may not be your opportunity to 
"pioneer" ! 

Do you remember the schools of the Puritan 
children? The log building, the rough seats, the 
little "horn-books," the stern and "awfully cross" 
teacher, with his large assortment of birch rods? 
The harsh words, the severe punishment, the tears? 

How times have changed ! 

Now, all over the country, even in the "black 
spots," are bright and sunny school rooms, with pic- 
tures and flowers and singing birds and tables and 
chairs just the right height for the little bodies who 
use them. The teachers are kind and gentle. There 
are plays and merry music, and merry-eyed chil- 
dren — blue eyes and black, brown eyes and gray, but 
all alike sparkling — not sober and sad like the eyes 
of the Puritan children. 

That lovely picture on the wall, of Christ blessing 
the little children tells us the reason for the change. 

Perhaps you have noticed in our story that as we 
have moved along from our great-great-great-great- 
grandfathers, the children have had more and more 
happiness in their lives, for people have been learn- 

58 



ing that the reHgion of Jesus Christ is not harsh 
and cruel, but loving and gentle and always kind, 
like Christ himself. 

This we know — the black spots will all come out 
some day, for the Golden Rule must win. Then in- 
deed, "from the Atlantic to the Pacific" our land 
will be bright and breezy and sunny, good to live in. 

In the meantime many things need to be done, 
and, as on the old frontier, men and women strong 
and courageous must go ahead to show how to do 
them. So, though we must say good-by to the chil- 
dren of the old frontier, for the old frontier is gone, 
yet there will still be new "frontiers," — new and 
hard obstacles to be overcome for the betterment of 
those who shall follow; and perhaps some day — 
who knows? — you will be found 

' ' Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, 
As you go the unknown ways. 
Pioneers — O Pioneers ! ' ' 



59 



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The Leader's Supplement 


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Suggestions for the Development 
and Use of Pioneers 



CONTENTS 

Explanatory Notes 63 

Questions on the Text 65 

Suggested Programs 69 

Constructive Work 7^ 

"Pioneer" Puzzles 7^ 

The "Pioneer" History Class (Advanced 

Work) .. 84 

Search Work, Bible Studies, Helps .. 85 

Recitations ^" 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 

"Pioneers" tells of home-making in the wilder- 
ness. The story therefore opens with our fore- 
fathers and foremothers of the Plymouth colony, 
rather than with the earlier colonists at Jamestown ; 
for the Pilgrims — fathers, mothers and children — 
came together over the sea to the new world. The 
men of the Jamestown settlements came alone. 

The story describes the advance into the wilder- 
ness and the estabhshment of homes. The bird's- 
eye view makes vivid each advancing stage of the 
frontier as it moves westward ; the retirement before 
it of savagery, and rapidly following it the coming 
up of the forces of industry, Christianity and educa- 
tion. The motto gives the essence and spirit of both 
map and story, and this spirit the title compresses 
into one ringing word. 

The leader therefore should study the pioneers, 
the men and women of the frontier, bringing out 
the strong qualities — courage, determination, quick- 
ness of action, readiness of resource, patience— 
which made them successful subduers of the wilder- 
ness ; the nobility of heart and deep affection which 
sent them forth to undergo for their children's sake 
such heavy hardships ; and the fine traits engendered 
in them by the obstacles they met and overcame. 

The leader should also show, in clear Hues, the 
children of the pioneers; their heritage; their en- 
vironment and their resolute will — strengthened by 
the always present necessity to overcome. 

63 



The leader will see and should bring out clearly 
that in many cases the children of the pioneers be- 
came themselves pioneers in a new frontier, whose 
hard conditions developed in their children qualities 
fitting them for advance in their turn, until at length 
the frontier reached the Western Ocean, and the 
spirit of the pioneers had become the Spirit of 
America. 

The leader has a splendid opportunity in the 
study of the frontier to help his pupils to realize 
their inheritance from the pioneers and the children 
of the pioneers. It is also his happy privilege to 
show how in each successive stage of advance his 
own and other religious denominations have aided 
in building up Christian character by means of 
church, educational, or other influence. 

In some instances Mission Boards have provided 
for the study of their special work by the insertion 
of a supplementary chapter in their editions of 
Pioneers. The leader should, in the absence of 
such chapter, apply to his Home Mission head- 
quarters for the needed material. 

In order to do the best work with "Pioneers," 
the leader should see that each member owns a copy 
of the book. 



64 



QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 

I. 

1. Why did the Pilgrims leave England? 

2. Why were they called "Separatists"? 

3. Why did they leave Holland? 

4. Did they expect to make their home in such a cold 

country as they found? 

5. What drove them out of their course? 

6. Can you give any other instances of ships being driven 

out of their course. 

7. Where did they establish their colony? 

8. Name ten ships which had by this time crossed the 

Atlantic Ocean to America. 

9. Tell the object of each one of the ten. 

10. How many things did the Pilgrims learn from the 
Indians? 

II. 

1. What was the object of the Puritans in coming to 

America ? 

2. Why were they called Puritans? 

3. Where did they establish towns? 

4. Were the Plymouth colony and the Massachusetts 

colony ever united? 

5. Did the Pilgrims and Puritans allow to others that 

liberty of conscience for which they themselves had 
come over sea? 

6. Name three good things for which we owe a debt 

to the New England colonists. 

7. What sources of wealth were open to the New Eng- 

land colonist? 

8. What were important industries? 

9. Name three reasons why the Indians became the 

enemies of the colonists. 
10. What debt do we owe to the Hollanders of New 
Netherland ? 

III. 

1. How far did the frontier extend at this time? 

2. How had settlers reached the Yadkin river? 

65 



3- Can you trace a waterway from the Atlantic to the 

Ohio river? 
4 Where was the easiest pass over the Appalachian 

Mountains ? 

5. What ways of traveling were at this time possible 

to the pioneer? 

6. What inducements were there to cross the mountains? 

7. Who was the leader of the first party to settle in 

Kentucky ? 

8. Describe a journey over the Wilderness Road. 

9. Describe the Wilderness Road. Who made it? 

10. Where was the first "American" convention of law- 
makers? 

IV. 

1. What great inland waterways did the pioneers make 

use of in their advancement westward? 

2. What advantages had water travel in the days of the 

down-stream men? 

e 

3. What kinds of boats were used? 

4. Mention two uses of the river raft. 

5. Why was New Orleans a more desirable market than 

Norfolk or Baltimore for the produce of the settlers 
of the West? 

6. Give reasons for the great hatred of the Indians to the 

white settler in the West. 

7. Describe the means of defense against their attacks. 

8. Who were the teachers of the children of the frontier? 

9. Give an instance of a child of the frontier, born and 

brought up in a log-cabin, who became one of the 
greatest of Americans. 
10. How much "schooling" did he have, and of what 
kind? 

V. 

1. How did it come about that the Indians of the West 

were supplied with rifles? 

2. What great tribes of Indians lived north of the Ohio 

river? What great tribes south of it? 

3. A young Virginian, a frontiersman of Kentucky, de- 

vised a plan which would put an end to the attacks 
of the northern Indians. 

66 



4. What was his plan, and how did he carry it out? 

5. How did it come about that there were western 

towns and trading stations far beyond the "Ameri- 
can" frontier? 

6. What States do we owe to the courage and brains of 

George Rogers Clarke? 

7. Mention some of the attractions of the Old North- 

west, known when the "Ordinance of 1787" was 
drawn up. 

8. Tell of some of the reasons for the great and rapid 

advance of the five states of the Old Northwest. 

9. Mention ten great institutions of learning in these 

five states. 
ID. What were the principal features of the "Ordinance 
of 1787"? 

VI. 

1. What great addition to the territory of the United 

States led to the advancement of the frontier to the 
west side of the Mississippi River? 

2. Who were the first "pioneers" on the Oregon trail? 
3 What led to travel over the old Santa Fe trail? 

4. What were these trails, and how had they been 

formed ? 

5. Describe the successive means of transportation over 

the Oregon trail. 

6. Describe a journey from St. Louis to Santa Fe in 

the days of the pack trains. 

7. How did the trail to the West come to be used? 

8. Name some pioneer missionaries who traveled over 

the Long Trail. 

9. How many states are there now in the region covered 

by the Long Trail? 
10. How did an emigrant train become a fort? 



vn. 

Where was the first railroad in the United States? 

How many miles did it cover? 
What was the plan for the building of an iron road 

across the continent? (Are iron roads built now?) 

67 



3- Describe the experiences of a party of surveyors mak- 
ing their way over the great plains. Try to think 
of all the obstacles to be overcome in laying the 
first cross-continent road. 

4. How did railroads help in extending the frontier west- 

ward? 

5. Why was it that the country developed and grew so 

rapidly after the railroads came? Give at least 
three reasons. 

6. Schools were rapidly multiplied in the new country. 

Where did money for the buildings come from? 

7. Many churches have been built also. How has the 

money been supplied? 

8. Are the characteristics of a railroad frontier the same 

as those of an "axe and rifle" frontier? 

9. What differences can you name? 
10. Where is the "frontier" nowf 



VIII. 1; 

We find now that "whole worldes and great countreys" 
have been occupied by the pioneers and those who followed 
them; there is no longer a frontier. But there are still 
evils to be met and obstacles to be conquered by men 
and women brave enough and forceful enough to go 
ahead and show how to conquer them — in other words, 
to be pioneers. 

Rule a large sheet of paper in three parallel columns. 

1. Make a list of unhappy conditions that need to be ^. 

made better. :|| 

2. Make a list of the noble men and women, perhaps 

children — the children of pioneers are likely to be- 
come pioneers ! — who are overcoming these conditions. 

3. In last column show how in each case the pioneer i» 

working in the spirft of the Bible by entering op- 
posite his work a verse or principle from the Bible- 
Look first for what you need in the words or actions 
of Jesus Christ Group those texts for a Bible read- 
ing for this concluding study of "pioneers" under 
the title, "The New Commandment." 

68 



SUBJECTS FOR BIBLE STUDIES. 

Texts to be read in response to roll call: 
I. Courage. 
II. Helpfulness. 

III. Guidance. 

IV. Enthusiasm. 

V. Patience and Endurance. 
VI. Diligence in Business. 
VII. The New Commandment. 

"That ye kave love, one to another." 

SUGGESTED PROGRAMS 
Chapter I. WITH AXE AND RIFLE. 

Tdrt First The First Pioneers, 

1. Coining Over the Sea: 

(The story brought out by five children, named as 
in the story, and dressed as Dutch children.) 

2. Making the New House: 

(As the leader tells the story, let the "sturdy pro- 
cession," with belongings as described, pass through 
the room.) 

3. The Indiam Teachers: 

(Group of children dressed as Indians, giving the 
pioneer and his family instructions by pantomime. 
Other members should tell the meaning of the pan- 
tomime.) 

4. Telegraphy by Mortar-Power: 

(Illustrate the Indian mill by object, if possible; let 
it be worked by Experience and the other children 
having "leather" (manila paper) garments drawn 
over their previous dress. 

(Should objects be impracticable, tell the story, illus- 
trating by pictures.) 

5. Making the Fire: 

(Let the leader bring out the story, by questioning 
members.) 

69 



*Part Second* Liitte Puritans* 

1. Indian Warfare: 

(Let leader tell the story.) 

2. Homespun Children: 

(Collect pictures illustrating early Colonial life. Paste 
these in sections on a long horizontal strip of manila 
paper. Have a "personally conducted" tour of the 
pictures.) 

3. A Puritan School: 

(Have an exact reproduction of a day in a Puritan 
School, except the punishments — "going through the 
motions" is all that need be done in this line.) 

4. Our Debt to the New England Pioneers: 

(Bring out by questioning.) 

5. Children of Manhattan: 

(Tell the story, illustrating with pictures of Knicker- 
bocker life.) 

6. Map Game: 

(Have note-books or pads and pencils, allow five 
minutes to make list of illustrations of Chapter I. 
The best list to win.) 

7. Pioneer Puzzle. 



Chapter II. SADDLE-BAGS 

T£Lrt First, The Great Kentucky Ttoneer* 

1. The Land of the Blue Grass: 

(Ask some friend who is a good story-teller to 
visit your meeting arrayed in hunting costume, and 
to tell Daniel Boone's Tale of the Blue Grass.) 

2. Setting Out for the Promised Land: 

(The small brothers and sisters of the members 
doubtless have among their possessions boxes of 

70 



wooden animals, and "toy villages'* ; with these and 
a sand map the "Wilderness Road" can be made a 
living reality to the boys and girls.) 

3. The Forest Path: 

(Let three members quickly succeed one another in 
telling of the journey to Kentucky. Let members 
decide on the merits of the three descriptions. If 
desirable, place name of best story-teller on the 
blackboard.) 

'Part Second* ^oonesborough* 

1. Building a Stockade: 

(Have a model — if not of entire stockade at least 
of a blockhouse. It is worth while to go to some 
trouble to secure this, for the stockade fort is a dis- 
tinctively American bit of architecture, and has been of 
supreme importance in the development of the coun- 
try. With help of sand map and by vivid picturing 
make real this feature of frontier life.) 

2. The Elm Tree Legislature: 

(Reading: Description of the ''hall" and of the 

"representatives." 

(Bring out by questioning knowledge of the laws 

passed.) 

3. Map Game: 

(As in Chapter I.) 

4. Pioneer Puzzle. 



Chapter IIL DOWN-STREAM. (See Cover.) 

Home Missiona.ries* 

"A Farewell Meeting": 

(This story, true in every particular, should be 
graphically told, and the dangers of the journey 
brought out.) 

71 



'1. An Indian Attack: 

(Call on the children to give quickly twelve state- 
ments of action from the five paragraphs devoted 
to the Indians.) 

3. Children of the Frontier: 

(At previous meeting appoint five members to write 
one-minute sketches of character produced by the 
frontier conditions. Explain carefully what is meant 
by this.) 

4. Life on the Frontier: 

(a) A Boy on the Frontier: 

(A five-minute story based on the parts of the con- 
cluding paragraphs of Chapter III.) 

(b) A Girl of the Frontier: 

(A five-minute story based on the facts of the con- 
cluding paragraphs of Chapter III.) 

5. Map Game. 

6. Pioneer Puzzle. 



Chapter IV. ON THE WARPATH. 

Winning the Old Northvirest: 
(Read first six paragraphs, sentence by sentence, in 
turn. You will probably have to practice this a little, 
but it is an excellent way to win close attention, and 
well worth a little trouble.) 

A Bird's-Eye View: 
(If the leader have sufficient energy and her mem- 
bers enough spirit, the sand map is the best way of 
getting the bird's-eye view; or, make a flat boat and 
a Canastota wagon of chairs and fill them with gay 
young pioneers. They must pay their fare, however, 
by telling correctly just what route and what vehicles 
they must take in order to reach their destination.) 

72 



"The Ordinance of 1787": 

1. Advantages of the "Old Northwest." 

(Three members should name these and contrast 
with conditions in former frontiers.) 

2. Education in the Old Northwest. 

(Show by diagram how the public land was divided 
for the benefit of the children of the state.) 

Map Game. 
Pioneer Puzzle. 



Chapter V. THE LONG TRAIL. 

Trappers and Fur Traders: 

(Illustrate the first six paragraphs of the chapter, if 
possible, with sand map and models of river craft 
and travois ; these models need be scarcely more than 
symbols, — mere suggestions to start the imagination; 
or by paper boats, or even by pictures clipped from 
various sources, or roughly drawn on paper. By 
some means make graphic the story of the river trail 
as you draw it forth from the members by rapid 
questioning.) 

The Oregon Trail: 

(Paragraphs 8 and 9 afford the leader a fine chance 
to tell the story of Marcus Whitman, or of Lewis 
and Clark.) 

The Old Santa Fe Trail: 

(This old trail in its results to the country warrants 
spending time and thought in its presentment.) 
(Make it vivid by use of the "Bird's-Eye View.") 

The Rush to California: 

(Bring out difference in character between gold- 
seekers and home-makers, and show that these pio- 
neers of commerce led to the building of cities, rather 
than to homes in the country.) 

7Z 



5- The Pony Express and the Overland Stage Route: 

(Make this description Hvely by reading quickly in 
turn sentence by sentence.) 

6. "Going West"— The Pioneer Home-Maker Once 
More: 

(Write on blackboard names of states which were 
opened up and settled by the "prairie schooner.") 
(Let some members "personate" Camping Out on the 
Long Trail.) 

7. Map Game. 



Chapter VI. DRIVING THE GOLDEN NAIL. 

1. The Pioneer of America: 

(Assign to three members the story of the Union 

Pacific.) 

(Let each one tell the story. As before, let the 

class decide which of the three best brings in all the 

facts.) 

2. A Magician's V/and: 

(By brisk questioning bring out the story of the 
track-laying on the old Santa Fe trail.) 

3. Pioneering in North Dakota: 

(Read in quick succession, sentence by sentence.) 

4. Map Game. 

5. Pioneer Puzzle. 



Chapter VII. TWENTIETH CENTURY PIONEERS. 

I. Twentieth Century Conditions: 

(Bring out in animated discussion facts given in first 
twenty paragraphs of Chapter VIL) 

74 



2. Twentieth Century Pioneers: 

(a) The National Health Association: 

(Assign to members the story of the routing of yel- 
low fever in New Orleans and in Havana.) 
(Challenge your whole membership to come prepared 
with items showing how all countries are uniting in 
stamping out tuberculosis. In the'presenting of these 
items, keep to time limit— one minute, or thirty sec- 
onds, as can be allowed.) 

(b) Tenement House Reform and Playground As- 
sociation: 

(Show by photographs old tenements and new. Also 
the transformation in neighborhood and character 
brought about by playgrounds. The "Junior Waring 
Leagues" should also be reported on in this con- 
nection.) 

(c) The Child Labor League: 

(Have a mock Congress session in which bills on 
Child Labor are considered; or, appoint two com- 
mittees—one to bring forward the employer's side of 
the question, the other to champion the children— 
or, in some other way make clear the progress made 
by the League and the obstacles still to be over- 
come. Bring out strongly all the bad effects of this 
untimely hard labor.) 

(d) Regions of Country Made Available for Homes 
by Irrigation and Reclamation of Swamp Lands: 
(Appoint a bulletin board committee to bring out in 
strong headlines recent achievements and present 
plans in irrigation and the draining of swamps.) 

(e) Make much of that great triumph of the spirit 
of Christianity—the Juvenile Court. (Tell to what 
Judge Lindsay's pioneering has led in the estab- 
Hshment of such courts.) 

(f) The Temperance Movement: 

(Bring out expressions of opinion from all mem- 
bers. Show that "temperance" is self-restraint for 
noble ends.) 

75 



(g) The City Farm: 

(Assign to members the collection of pictures illus- 
trating the city farm, and window gardening; and of 
items describing distribution of plants from city parks, 
etc., etc.) 

(h) Efforts in Relieving and Diminishing the Suffer- 
ing of Animals and Adding to Their Enjoyment 
of Life: 

(Have an open parliament, for every boy and girl 
will be full of interest on this point and will be 
anxious to add some incident or observation.) 

(i) Kindergartens: 

(Illustrate by pictures; bring out strongly not only 
the present pleasure but the lasting benefits of the 
kindergarten in many ways, but especially in leading 
to efficiency and joy in work.) 

3. Map Game. 

4. Pioneer Puzzle. 



CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 
I. 

The "Bird's-EyeView" invites to much constructive 
work ; for instance : 
I. The Frontier, in Seven Phases 

(a) Wild animals of America. 

(b) Indian abodes; and the evolution of the American 
dwelling. 

(c) Development of travel, and in means of transporta- 
tion — on land and water. 

(d) Inventions. 

(e) Industrial Progress. 

(f ) Development of Agriculture. 

(g) Important Buildings. 

Materials needed: loose sheets of strong paper — to 
be tied together when finished or bound, or held in 
portfolio; collection of pictures corresponding with 
drawings on the map ; library paste. 

76 



Classify pictures and mount on sheets in above order ; 
in (a) enter locality, under pictures; (b) locality, 
and approximate dates; (c) dates and where possi- 
ble, name of inventor; (d) dates and locality where 
first used; (e) dates of discovery (as of coal, oil, 
etc.) ; (f) dates and where possible names; (g) date, 
use and locality. 

2. America in the Making 

Materials as in I. 

Mount pictures to show the first frontier, and each 
succeeding one in the seven stages of development. 
Assign Atlantic frontier to one member or group of 
seven members; and the Trans- Alleghany and the 
succeeding frontier in the same manner, or in some 
other way. 

3. The Frontier in American History 

Materials: (a) blank books; (b) loose sheets to be 
bound with attractive cover; [(a) will be easier; (b) 
offers greater opportunity for inventiveness and artis- 
tic sense.] 

Making use only of the "Bird's-Eye View" write a 
description of the first frontier, illustrating as pre- 
ferred. 

Bring into your story as suggested by the map, events, 
persons, inventions, character, as the result of fron- 
tier conditions strengthened by further Christian in- 
fluence brought in from outside. 
Make similar sketch of each succeeding frontier. 

II. Many suggestions for Constructive Work are offered 

in the series of programs. Other possibilities along 
this line will suggest themselves to the leader — and 
the more spontaneous, the pleasanter will be the carry- 
ing out. 

III. Pioneer Puzzles Worked Out 

Make attractive little booklets in which write short 
sketches of the subjects of the puzzles. 

77 ' .. 



Illustrate in some unusual way. 

Include a small map giving trails followed by the 

Pioneer. 

IV. Progressive Maps 

Required: outline maps (see "Leader's Helps") blue 
gummed stars to indicate American settlements or 
forts; red, French; green, Spanish; gilt to show the 
Westward march of the frontier. 
Names of settlements and later towns and cities 
should be neatly written in. Also names of rivers 
and lakes, and a few very significant dates. 

V. Biographical Maps 

Required : outline maps, showing state boundaries ; 
colored crayons or pencils; colored stars. 
A set of these maps should be made by each mem- 
ber of the Pioneer History Class; to be bound in 
with his illustrated sketches. 

VI. Expansion Maps 

Required: outline maps showing rivers, not state 

lines; colored crayons and stars. 

Show successive acquisitions of territory. 

Note. In IV., V. and VI. a committee should be ap- 
pointed to make a large wall map to serve, if desired, as a 
model for the smaller outline maps. 



PIONEER PUZZLES 

No. 1 

A SENSE OF RIGHT. 

There is much, though very quiet, excitement one day 

in a little house in a Puritan settlement. The mother is 

hurriedly gathering a small packet of parched corn and 

pounded venison; keeping a brave face the while, though 

inwardly greatly troubled and alarmed. Her children look 

on wonderingly. Presently their father comes in, takes 

the little package and his rifle, bids them all farewell, and 

goes quickly out into the dusk of the early winter even- 

78 



ing. It is bitterly cold; the sharp wind rises as the night 
comes on; the snow lies deep on the ground, and in the 
dark forest near and far sound the cries of panthers and 
the howling of wolves. 

The man wanders on and on; the cold is more and 
more intense; only the shelter of a hollow tree prevents 
his freezing to death. Soon after he left his house, officers 
sent by the governor of the colony, and bearing a search 
warrant, enter it, looking for him. 

These officers have instructions to arrest the man 
and forcibly put him on board a vessel about to sail for 
England. 

The man had warning of this intention, and for thai 
reason had made his escape into the forest. For long 
weeks he traveled, almost without shelter or food; at 
last he reached the house of a friendly Indian ; all Indians, 
in fact, were his friends, for he had always treated them 
with kindness and justice. 

The man was a minister of the Gospel; some mem- 
bers of his congregation followed him into the winderness ; 
with them he founded a colony in a beautiful place near 
-the sea; this settlement was to be a place of refuge for 
all who were oppressed in any way or who were persecuted 
on account of their religious opinions. The colony pros- 
pered and was the pioneer in allowing freedom of con- 
science and in promoting government by the people. 

When a national flag was made, one of its thirteen 
stripes representing the states of the Union stood for this col- 
ony. A prosperous city now covers the site of the first little 
settlement of this pioneer of religious freedom. Who was 
he? What was the name of his settlement and of this 
colony which afterward became a state? For what opin- 
ions was he banished, and from what colony? 



Pioneer Puzzle No. 2. 
A PIONEER IN SADDLE-BAGS. 

He starts from the College of New Jersey. An old 
gray horse which he drives before him is loaded with a 

79 



sack full of books. Tramp, tramp, through Maryland, 
through Virginia, he and the old horse travel on together. 
This is well enough in the comparatively open and level 
country, but what will they do when they reach the Alle- 
ghany Mountains? They cross them, climbing up and slip- 
ping and sliding down. They ford streams; the books 
often dipping in the water. While the sun is drying the 
books, the man and the old horse rest. They are not in 
doubt about the way, for a blazed trail leads on through 
the forest, until at last they reach the journey's end. 
Here the man helps to build a log church, and near it, a 
high school — also of logs — which later becomes a college 
— the first college west of the Alleghanics. 

He works in the fields, sometimes with rifle close 
at hand and a guard stationed; he helps clear the forest, 
and hunts elk and buffalo, as do the other pioneers. 

On Sundays he preaches — his rifle standing by him in 
the pulpit. The congregation are also armed, and in an 
Indian attack the preacher is the equal of any in courage 
and skill. He is a stern, hard. God-fearing man, and a 
powerful influence for good on the frontier of the South- 
west. 

Wanted: The name of the man, the present name of 
the college which he founded, and its location. 

Pioneer Puzzle No. 3. 
"FORMING A CIRCUIT" IN KENTUCKY. 

The young evangelist had now strange work. He 
must form his own appointments, organize his churches, 
and break his way through the wilderness as best he could. 
His record shows hov»r such work was done in those times. 
"In two days," he says, *T arrived at Manoah Lasley's, 
where I spent a few days, rested my horse, and recruited 
my wardrobe. I found myself at a very great loss to 
know how to form a circuit in that vast wilderness, and 
had no one to instruct me. I preached, on Sabbath day, 
in Father Lasley's house, and set off on Monday on my 
great and important enterprise. I concluded to travel 
five miles, as nearly as I could guess, then stop, recon- 

80 



noiter the neighborhood, and find some kind person who 
would let me preach in his log-cabin, and so on till I 
had performed the entire round." 

Soon after he had started on his route he says: "I 
had a long ride through a dreary country. Late in the 
evening I came to a little log-cabin, standing in the woods, 
with no stable or outbuildings of any kind. Seeing a 
woman in the door, I rode up and asked if I could stay 
all night; she seemed to think not. I paused a few mo- 
ments, thinking what to do. I was afraid to go any farther, 
lest I should havr to lie out all night. That I was afraid 
to do, as the weather was very cold, and there were al- 
ways a great mai.v ravenous wolves in the barrens. My 
life would be in QJinger, and there was nothing to en- 
courage me to stay at this place. I knew I would have 
to tie my hungry, tired horse to a tree, without any 
shelter or food. The woman was unwilling to let me stay. 
She was not entirely alone, but had several children, and 
one daughter partly grown, which inclined me to think 
I could stay with safety. I finally concluded to let her 
know who I was and what business I was on. I said to 
her, T am a Methodist preacher, sent by Bishop Asbury 
to try to form a circuit.' This information appeared to 
electrify her. Her countenance changed, and her eyes 
fairly sparkled. She stood some time without speaking, 
and then exclaimed, 'Has a Methodist preacher come at 
last? Yes, brother, you shall stay all night. Mr. Carson is 
not at home, but we will do the best we can for you with 
a glad heart.' I alighted from my horse and went into 
the house. The children clustered around me as if some 
near friend had come. After having gone through with the 
usual ceremonies, my next concern was to take care of 
my horse. Their oldest daughter, a pleasant girl, provided 
me with a halter, and directed me to a suitable tree where 
my horse could stand. I soon found I was to have a 
comfortable night's rest. They furnished me with plenty 
of good sound corn for my horse. The cabin, and what 
little furniture they had, was neat and clean. Supper was 
soon served up, just such as suited me, corn-bread, fried 
venison, and crop-vine tea." 

What was a "circuit"? Name three "circuit-riders" 
gi 



Pioneer Puzzle No. 4. 
A PIONEER CHURCH BELL. 

Twelve young men of New England joined together 
to establish Christian education in a certain Western state. 
The journey thither from New Haven occupied from four 
to six weeks. A certain settlement, now a famous city, was 
then a cluster of five or six houses. The northern half 
of the state was almost unbroken wilderness, and it was 
supposed it would always remain so, for there was little 
wood for houses or fencing and the soil was thought to 
be too rich to build roads on. 

Presently was heard the ringing of the first Protestant 
church bell in that state; soon there were Christian col- 
leges. The leader of the association of young men be- 
came known as the Father of Western Colleges. 

Tell the name of the state, of the association of 
young men, of its leader, and of the town where the 
church bell rang. 



Pioneer Puzzle No. 5. 
"A PIONEER HOSPITAL." 

The first hospital in Utah. The mining camps know 
it; railroads find it a blessing; the whole community 
makes use of it. 

There are two other hospitals in the state, established 
largely through the example of this pioneer. 

One day a will was made in one of the wards of 
this "pioneer" by a Mormon patient, leaving a large sum 
to his own church to found an institution similar to the 
one in which he had been cared for. When the Mormon 
hospital was ready for work, announcement was made 
that the best of care could be guaranteed to its patrons, 
because most of the nurses had been obtained from the 
fine training school of this "pioneer." 

Where is the pioneer hospital? What is its name? 
By what Church was it established? 

82 



Pioneer Puzzle No. 6. 
A "PIONEER" COLLEGE DORMITORY. 

It was made of slabs of rough hewn logs and was 
but one story high; there was, in fact and literally, only 
the ground floor, but each room in it had a window and 
a door. 

There must have been stalwart students— mentally and 
physically — in those compartments, for this building is 
said to have been in educational results the most important 
in the great state oi—What? To what college was it an 
adjunct? To whose efforts was the college due? What 
has been its history? 

Pioneer Puzzle No. 7. 
IN VACATION DAYS. 

First — A warm day in the summer vacation; the sun 
is hot; the city streets are dusty. Children are idling 
or quarreling in these streets; their efforts at amusement 
having been checked by the "cop." A pleasant-looking, en- 
ergetic young lady, who walks in a way that indicates that 
she finds life worth living, makes her way to some of the 
listless or fighting children. She talks a while in an 
animated way, and presently starts off in the direction of a 
cool-looking ivy-covered church. The children follow her, 
and they all troop into the church, by one door, just at 
the moment when a brisk young man is ushering in a 
group of boys through another door. 

There is singing, the beginning of what will be, be- 
fore vacation is over, beautiful and delightful music. 

There are Bible stories, to which the children listen 
with great delight. Someone who knows how tells the 
story of Joseph, or David perhaps, or Daniel. These 
tales are new to the children; they do not know, as they 
listen breathlessly, whether Joseph will ever get out of 
that well, whether the mighty giant will crush the life out 
of David, or how soon the lions may devour Daniel. So 
it is all very exciting. 

After an hour of stories and more singing, there is an 
hour of pleasant work with the hands, weaving, carving, 

83 



sewing — more singing, then the children go out again into 
the hot and dusty streets, but they have had a fine time 
and will surely come again to-morrow. 

Besides that pleasure, the brisk young man has in- 
vited the boys to play ball with him in the afternoon. 

Second— Many such groups in other churches of the 
same city. 

Third — Similar groups in other cities. 

Fourth — A national organization of such groups, which 
may become a pioneer to other nations. 

IVhat is this pioneer's name? In what city did the 
first group meet? To what organization is the plan due? 

A "PIONEER" HYMN. 
O GOD, beneath Thy guiding hand. 

Our exiled fathers crossed the sea; 
And when they trod the wintry strand. 

With prayer and psalm they worshipped Thee. 

Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer: 

Thy blessing came; and still its power 
Shall onward, through all ages, bear 

The memory of that holy hour. 

Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God 

Came with those exiles o'er the waves; 
And where their pilgrim feet have trod, 

The God they trusted guards their graves. 

TOPICS FOR THE "PIONEER" HISTORY 
CLASS. 

I. 
Discoverers. 
Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Cabot, Hudson, Haw- 
kins, Drake. 

II. 
Explorers. 
Balboa, Coronado, De Soto, Cartier, Champlain, Mar- 
quette, Joliet, La Salle, Boone, Lewis and Clark, Fremont. 

84 



III. 

Hunters and Indian Fighters. 
Boone, Robertson, Sevier, George Rogers Clarke, 
Wayne, Carson, Crockett. 

IV. 
Home-Makers. 
Bradford, Winthrop, Boone, Robertson, Sevier, Put- 
nam, the Railroad, Irrigation. 

V. 

Inventors. 
Franklin, Whitney, Fulton, De Witt Clinton, Howe, 
Morse, McCormick, Cyrus W. Field, Edison, Marconi. 
VI. 

Missionaries. 

Roger Williams, Doak, Cartwright, Baldwin, Whipple, 
Whitman, Kemper, Sheldon Jackson. 

VII. 
Tv^entieth Century Men. 
(Make a list and describe achievements, of men like 
these:) 

"God give us men! A time like this demands 
Clean minds, pure hearts, true faith, and ready hand. 
Men who possess opinions and a will ; 
Men whom desire for office does not kill; 
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; 
Men who have honor; men who will not lie; 
Tall men ; sun-crowned men ; men who live above the fog 
In public duty and in private thinking." 

SEARCH WORK 

What significance have the following dates? 



A. D. 1492 


1607 


1630 


1777 


1497 


1609 


1649 


1781 


1585 


1620 


1776 


1783 


1789 


1807 


1827 


1862 


1803 


1809 


1846 


1865 


180S 


1825 


1848 


1869 



85 



RECITATIONS 

With Chapter; I, Part 2. 
"Why do I sleep amid the snows? 

Why do the pine boughs cover me? 
While dark the wind of winter blows 
Across the Narragansett's sea. 

sense of right ! O sense of right ! 
Whate'er my lot in life may be, 

Thou art to me God's inner light, 
And these tired feet must follow thee. 

Yes, still my feet must onward go, 
With nothing for my hope but prayer. 

Amid the winds, amid the snow, 
And trust the ravens of the air. 

But though alone, and grieved at heart, 
Bereft of human brotherhood, 

1 trust the whole, and not the part. 
And know that Providence is good. 

Self-sacrifice is never lost. 

But bears the seed of its reward ; 
They who for others leave the most, 

For others gain the most from God. 

sense of right! I must obey. 

And hope and trust, whate'er betide ; 

1 cannot always know my way. 
But I can always know my Guide. 

And so for me the winter blows 

Across the Narragansett's sea. 
And so I sleep beneath the snows, 

And so the pine boughs cover me." 

Who slept beneath the snows and whom did the pine 
boughs cover? 

86 



With Chapter VI. 

" I am one of the Pioneers 
Of North Dakota State. 
At Hill's request I came out West 
In search of real estate. 

"I filed along the Cut Bank Creek, 
Just forty miles from rail; 
And I started farming with a hoe 
Along the Minot trail. 

"The hardships that we did endure, 
From hunger and from cold, 
I haven't time to tell you. 
Or it never will be told. 

"To start from Minot with a load 
And face a northwest gale, 
It would break your heart, right on the start, 
Along the Minot trail. 

" The rivers they were far apart, 
And a well was something new. 
It often tickled us to find 
Some water in a slough. 

"The only fuel that we knew 
Was prairie hay and straw. 
From November until April 
We never had a thaw. 

" I often thought I'd rather be 
In some good warm jail, 
While twisting hay both night and day 
Along the Minot trail. 

■'And when the snow would disappear 
The gophers would begin. 
They'd eat up everything we sowed. 
And then we'd sow again. 

87 



" If I could scheme some new device 
To kill the flicker-tail, 
I might stand a show with my old hoe 
Along the Minot trail. 



"The gophers we've banished, 
The shacks have all vanished. 
Except for an odd one 
That's used as a coop. 

" On each claim there's a mansion 

Where stockmen were ranchin' 

Just four years ago 

In the Mouse River Loop." 
— From "Greater America"; by permission of The Outing 
Publishing Company. 

THE FLOWER FACTORY. 
With Chapter VII. 

Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, 
They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one- 
Little children who have never learned to play: 
Teresina softly crying that her fingers ache to-day. 
Tiny Fiametta nodding when the twilight slips in, gray. 
High above the clattering street, ambulance and fire-gong 

beat, 
They sit, curling crimson petals, one by one, one by one. 

Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, 

They have never seen a rose-bush nor a dew-drop in the 
sun. 

They will dream of the vendetta, Teresina, Fiametta, 

Of a Black Hand and a Face behind a grating; 

They will dream of cotton petals, endless, crimson, suffo- 
cating. 

Never of a wild-rose thicket nor the singing of a cricket. 

But the ambulance will bellow through the wanness of 
their dreams. 

And their tired lids will flutter with the street's hysteric 
screams. 



Lisabetta, Marianina, Flametta, Teresina, 

They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one, 

Let them have a long, long play-time, Lord of Toil, when 

toil is done! 
Fill their baby hands with roses, joyous roses of the sun. 
— Copyright by the S. S. McClure Company. 

"The Mayflower." Edward Everett. 

"The Quaker of the Olden Time." Whittier. 

"Pentucket, 1708." Whittier. 

"The Landing of the Pilgrims." Hemans. 

See Words and Music in "Leaders in Conference." 

REFERENCE BOOKS FOR THE 

LEADER AND FOR THE "PIONEER" 

HISTORY CLASS 

McMaster — Primary History of the United States. Amer- 
ican Book Company. 

Earle — Home Life in Colonial Days. Houghton, Mifflin. 

Jenks — When America Was New. T. Y. Crowell. 

Baldwin — The Conquest of the Old Northwest. Amer- 
ican Book Company. 
— Makers of America. Silver, Burdett & Co. 

Carson — Christian America. The Brooklyn Eagle. 

FOR CONSTRUCTIVE WORK. 

Wall Outline Maps of United Stages, showing rivers 
and coast lines ; size 32 x 44 inches. Price, 25 cents. Post- 
age extra on one map, 10 cents; for each additional map, 
2 cents. 

Maps for individual work ; size 10 x 15 inches. 

1. Showing rivers and coast lines. 

2. Showing state boundaries. 
Two cents each; $1.50 per hundred. 

Flag Seals for souvenirs, etc. 10 cents per box of 100. 
Stars, gummed, 10 cents per box of 100. 

Send to the Literature Department, Presbyterian Home 
Missions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 



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